Securing the Supply Chain: The Role of OSINT in Logistics

Supply chain operations can be vast. While globalization and digital technologies are making the world a smaller place in many ways, they also increase the number of potential vulnerabilities that security teams and supply chain managers must monitor. Current threats to the logistics sector include climate and weather events, piracy, terrorism, DDoS attacks, malware and data breaches.

The range of potential threats is exacerbated by the vulnerabilities of the supply chain and the sheer size and scope of the operations involved. For example, around 90% of the entirety of global trade flows through only 39 bottleneck regions. An effective attack on any of these 39 traffic-heavy logistics hubs would have far-reaching consequences impacting billions of dollars of trade.

One example is the Hong Kong-Shenzhen freight cluster, a critical gateway for global manufacturing and trade, through which tens of millions of tonnes of container and air freight move annually. Additionally, there are a number of geographic chokepoints, such as the Panama Canal and the Strait of Malacca.

It is no longer merely the threat of attacks to these areas, which could halt a vast amount of freight. Incidents, such as the grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal in 2021 and the drought that restricted movement through the Panama Canal in 2023-24, demonstrate that these geographic chokepoints are increasingly vulnerable.

If this wasn’t enough, digitization has increased the number of threats that logistics companies need to consider. This increase in vulnerability needs to be addressed through effective security measures, such as real-time data collection using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) software.

How can transport and logistics companies secure their supply chains?

Ensuring secure passage

One of the key concerns – and one of the oldest – that logistics and transport companies have to contend with, is tangible and physical security threats; terrorism and piracy being the obvious examples. The rise in extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, also places pressure on logistics routes. Organizations need real-time information to carefully and continuously assess the threat level, implications and risks surrounding these physical security concerns.

These analyses help organizations to develop mitigation strategies. They also help to establish contingency plans for worst-case scenarios. Organizations need to be able to adapt and respond quickly to events as risk levels change. Supply chain managers across all industries need to consider higher transportation costs, longer travel times and potential issues in meeting schedules when alternative transportation routes are used.

These strategies depend on continuous visibility of current and emerging threats. Without this response, planning is compromised. Being caught unawares could have far-reaching and even devastating consequences. And, in some cases, business models based on time-critical deliveries may be squeezed out of the market.

Keeping cyberspace safe

Cybersecurity is a concern that should be receiving increasing attention as cybercriminals continue to evolve their tradecraft.

In 2017, a cyberattack cost shipping giant Maersk upwards of US$300 million. A vicious malware called NotPetya took down Maersk’s IT systems. Maersk was handling roughly one container ship into port every 15 minutes. So, it's easy to imagine the logistical nightmare that ensued as the company was forced to turn to manual processes to keep things moving.

The Russian military developed NotPetya to target businesses in Ukraine – but the malware quickly got out of hand. Soon, it was spreading around the world, taking down networks and causing billions of dollars in damage and lost revenue. In this scenario, Maersk was simply collateral damage.

More recently, Expeditors International were affected by a cyberattack that forced them to shut down their operating systems, disrupting their services for more than three weeks. Expeditors later revealed the attack had cost them $60 million in lost revenue, investigation and remediation.

Transportation is already heavily reliant on Information Communication Technology (ICT), with virtual threats growing in frequency and complexity. For this reason, cyber threats are an increasing concern across multiple industries. Additionally, for transportation and logistics, cyberattacks designed to induce physical damage are an increasingly common attack vector.

OSINT software for a more secure future

Some organizations operate with hundreds of individual suppliers. If any supplier is disrupted, consequences across the supply chain could be costly. Expeditors International and Maersk are just two examples of this.

Investing in live threat detection doesn’t just reduce risk; it also keeps operations running smoothly and predictably. When it comes to security and supply chain management, it’s especially important to look at future scenarios and manage security proactively. Reacting to crisis situations is not enough. Companies must find the right combination of preventive and reactive measures to achieve the optimal level of supply chain security.

Executives should also keep an eye on so-called wildcard events. That means examining the potential financial impact, the relative vulnerability of their business model, and their company’s ability to respond to low-probability, high-impact events.

As supply chain threats multiply, staying ahead of the intelligence flood becomes more difficult. Signal’s tools cut through the noise by using AI to perform tasks, such as triaging alerts and providing contextual SITREPs for possible threats. This sort of practical application of AI creates efficiencies within security teams, without compromising the crucial situational awareness needed to keep logistics lines open.

How Signal is already helping secure logistics supply chains

• Signal alerts a customer to a supplier’s merger. They can find new suppliers in a timely fashion, preventing disruption and revenue loss.

• Signal provides data on severe weather warnings that affect multiple suppliers and disrupt transportation routes.

• Confidential data is found for sale on the dark web, allowing the organization to act quickly for threat mitigation.

7 Dark Web Forums You Need to Monitor for Improved Cyber Security

The dark web has grown in popularity over the years, as people become increasingly technologically savvy. Using a darknet browser like Tor or I2P enables users to remain anonymous while browsing the internet.

 People seek anonymity online for many legitimate reasons. For example, they might have concerns about large companies' abilities to track their online activity, or they might not feel comfortable giving Google all their data. Alternatively, they might live in a place with restrictions on freedom and free speech and necessarily turn to dark web anonymity to access world news or freely share journalism.

However, that same anonymity also protects criminals. It allows them to operate across borders, organize crime and trade in illegal items, both physical and digital. Dark web forums also host discussions on topics including extremist ideas, hate speech, threats of violence, or even plans for cyberattacks.

This wide range of dark web activity is a key concern for security professionals. By monitoring the dark web with OSINT tools, such as Signal, security professionals can discover exploit kits targeting their organization, get early alerts of data breaches, and even prevent physical attacks on assets or employees.

In this article, we examine a few of the more common dark web forums and explore how security professionals can utilize OSINT tools, such as Signal, to more efficiently and effectively monitor threats on the dark web.

About dark web forums as data sources

Because of the anonymity afforded by the dark web, people feel comfortable discussing all manner of things. As such, the dark web – especially dark web forums – is a valuable source of intelligence for security professionals. Monitoring these channels can help expose real and potential threats, ranging from planned attacks, both physical and digital, to fraud, data breaches and more.

Below, we examine 7 of the largest dark web forums that professionals should be aware of as potential sources of security data.

BreachForums

Despite multiple takedowns by law enforcement and rumours that it may now be a ‘honeypot’ (a site compromised by law enforcement or security researchers), BreachForums and the mirror sites that pop up are still a major threat. BreachForums and its mirrors are still one of the most visible places for selling or leaking corporate databases and credentials. If your company data is compromised, it is highly likely it will appear here.

DarkForums

This is a relatively new forum, emerging as a successor to BreachForums. With a rapidly growing user base, this English-language site specializes in data leaks, malware and access sales.

Cracked / Nulled

Cybercriminals mostly use these forums to trade and purchase leaked or hacked information. Despite a significant law enforcement action in mid-2025 (Operation Talent), these forums still have millions of members. They are able to remain in operation in much the same way as BreachForums, by spawning mirror sites.

Dread

Dread is a forum on the darknet that mirrors Reddit’s functionality. It provides the same familiar community discussion boards. The forum takes many ideas from Reddit, such as sub-communities and user moderation responsibilities. The site mimics this functionality without any JavaScript. The primary goal of Dread is to offer a censorship-free forum; however, it also provides hacking guides, software and carding tools, as well as drugs and stolen data. Dread also serves as a place for news on the latest dark web marketplaces.

XSS

A longstanding Russian language forum. XSS has a reputation for high-quality content and is a closed forum with restricted access to approved members. Access to compromised systems is frequently sold and traded on this site.

Exploit

Exploit has been in existence even longer than XSS, for many of the same reasons (high-quality content and restricted access). Due to its longevity, most types of cybercriminal activity can be found in dedicated sections.

RAMP

This is another Russian-language forum that has quickly gained prominence on the dark web. It functions as both a forum and a marketplace for criminal activity with a particular focus on financial fraud.

Other prominent forums

Other active forums with substantial membership include:

• LeakBase

• Crax

• Germania (a German-language forum)

• Infinity

• HackForums

• Sinister.ly

• Mirror sites for older forms, such as RaidForums, also persist on the dark web.

The dark web is no longer the only location for this type of activity. Apps such as Telegram and Discord, which sit on the unindexed deep web, are also becoming increasingly popular for cybercriminals to trade exploits, swap information and organize activities.

Related: How Can 4chan be Used as a Data Source for Security Intelligence?

Why dark web monitoring is difficult

Security professionals face numerous challenges when it comes to monitoring the dark web. For a start, there is the sheer volume of posts. With each of these forums and marketplaces operating across numerous time zones, they experience continuous activity. The most popular get tens of thousands of posts a day. Manually monitoring these sites is just not a feasible task.

Secondly, the fluid nature of the dark web community means that forums and marketplaces are forever becoming the victims of law enforcement action, internal troubles or scams. For example, XSS may have become compromised even as this blog is being published. These forums and marketplaces are like a Hydra – when one is cut off, new sites or mirror sites sprout up almost immediately.

Thirdly, the more explicit dark web forums and marketplaces (such as XSS or Exploit) will require you to create an account and may even go some way to verifying that you have the necessary skills to be allowed in. While the anonymity of the dark web means administrators of these forums likely can't work out exactly where you came from or what your true purpose is on their platform, those that are interested might attempt to determine your real identity. When creating an account, it’s essential to make sure it holds no relevance to any other online account you have, if you want to maintain your complete anonymity and avoid becoming a target of those same criminals you are looking to monitor.

Once inside, you must remain active on the platform without arousing suspicion; otherwise, your hard-won access could be revoked.

Finally, a lot of hackers on the dark web would be more than willing to turn their talents and attention to you, should you accidentally cross them. Some websites will infect your device with malware, so treat all links or downloads with suspicion. Additionally, clicking those links may take you to disturbing material. So, unless you’re confident you can safely and securely navigate the dark web, it may be better to look for safer, more efficient alternatives.

How Signal makes dark web monitoring safer and smarter

The Signal OSINT platform works by continuously scanning the surface, deep, and dark web. You can run custom Boolean searches across multiple data sources. These search results can then be filtered using our advanced AI and natural language processing (NLP), which enables you to search across languages, determine location, analyze copy in images and even assess the emotional intent behind text through our NLP software, Spotlight.

The benefits of having a tool like this for monitoring the dark web include efficient, continuous monitoring and assessment of a multitude of sites, allowing security teams to monitor more of the web to catch more threats faster. Because Signal’s searches are across the dark web, rather than specific sites, they do not rely on security teams having up-to-the-minute intelligence about which forums or marketplaces are active and popular. Additionally, security professionals can access this data without ever having to hunt down and access the various dark web forums and marketplaces, which is both more secure and much more time-efficient.

This lets you automate dark web monitoring – cutting costs, while expanding coverage and relevance.

5 Dark Web Marketplaces Security Professionals Need to Know About

Dark web marketplaces are online platforms, where people can buy and sell illegal goods and services while remaining anonymous. The offerings include leaked credit card details, exploit kits, hackers for hire and advertisements for hitman services.

Because of the range of goods and services available, as well as the conversations that occur around these transactions, dark web marketplaces can be immensely valuable sources of data on criminal activity. As such, they are typically under intense scrutiny from both law enforcement and security professionals.

These marketplaces have become increasingly sophisticated, with slick user interfaces that resemble familiar online storefronts, such as Amazon, along with seller ratings and escrow services for secure payment. This makes the barrier for users lower than ever before.

5 dark web marketplaces

People have been organizing illicit trades via the internet since the 1970s. Those early examples were through closed networks, with actual exchanges of money and goods usually taking place in person. With the advent of cryptocurrencies, it has become easy to complete online trades without leaving a trail. As a result, the online trade of illegal goods has become increasingly commonplace, and vast dark web marketplaces have emerged.

The very first of these marketplaces to pair the darknet with Bitcoin was the Silk Road, created by Ross Ulbricht in February 2011. Over the following two years, the Silk Road set the standard for dark web marketplaces. By the time it was shut down in October 2013, and Ulbricht arrested, the site had traded an estimated $183 million worth of goods and services.

Torzon Market

Torzon is one of the largest general-purpose darknet markets still active in 2025. It offers a familiar mix of narcotics, fraud tools and digital services. The site operates on Tor and supports Bitcoin and Monero, utilising escrow to facilitate transactions. Torzon also imports vendor feedback from other platforms, providing some continuity for buyers and sellers who have migrated after past shutdowns.

STYX Market

STYX has carved out a role as a hub for stolen data rather than drugs. Its listings focus on stealer logs, initial access and financial credentials, making it highly relevant for financial security professionals. Unlike older drug-oriented markets, STYX looks more like a specialized cybercrime exchange than a bazaar.

STYX is a great example of a ‘new model’ market with a searchable structure and trusted vendor processes, which helps buyers quickly filter for fresh data. The market grew through 2023-24 and remains active in 2025, underscoring how access and credentials have become commodities on par with drugs in the dark web economy.

Russian Market

Often written as RussianMarket, this is the largest marketplace for stealer logs. It aggregates credentials, cookies and session data harvested by malware such as RedLine, Raccoon and Vidar, and sells them in bulk. This makes it both a goldmine for attackers seeking account takeovers and a persistent monitoring target for security professionals.

Researchers estimate that millions of logs are for sale, with new ones added daily. Its endurance shows how cybercriminal demand has shifted from physical contraband to stolen identity data. For enterprises, Russian Market illustrates why compromised credentials remain one of the most common entry points for intrusions.

2easy

Sometimes branded 2easy.shop, this site has become known as the budget marketplace for stolen logs. Rather than focusing on premium access, it thrives on low-cost, high-volume sales. Individual log packages are often priced between $5 and $25, making them accessible to a wide spectrum of buyers. 2easy's persistence highlights the democratization of cybercrime. Criminals no longer need large budgets to obtain working credentials, just a few dollars.

BriansClub

BriansClub is a long-running carding shop, best known for selling stolen credit card ‘dumps’ and CVVs. Despite a 2019 breach (and law enforcement action) that exposed millions of its records, the shop has remained active and continues to attract buyers in 2025.

Estimates before the breach suggested a nine-figure annual turnover and, while its exact scale today is harder to verify, it remains one of the most recognisable carding brands.

Other markets include Abacus market, BidenCash, Exploit, Exodus Marketplace and more.

The diffusion of dark web marketplaces

With the rise of encrypted communication apps, such as Telegram and even Discord, some of the trade previously undertaken on the dark web has ‘surfaced’ to the unindexed deep web. Channels such as CrdPro Corner, AsCarding Underground and Daisy Cloud are flourishing on Telegram, with thousands of users in each channel trading everything from logs to bots. These channels often operate as subscription services, providing fresh dumps of material daily.

How to keep track of evolving darknet marketplaces

There are various active dark web marketplaces. One of our data providers estimates there are approximately 20 active, leading dark web marketplaces and dozens of smaller, additional marketplaces. With the diffusion to the unindexed deep web, this number becomes even greater.

Gaining access and monitoring these darknet marketplaces comes with a unique set of challenges. Firstly, they generally have short lifespans. This could be for a variety of reasons. For example, law enforcement might close them down; or, perhaps to help avoid this fate, they frequently change their domain address. It could even be because the admin implemented an exit scam, as happened with Empire Market, where the admin team is estimated to have made off with approximately $30 million worth of Bitcoin in August 2020. Almost none of the marketplaces featured in the 2020 version of this article are in existence now.

Due to this short lifespan, security professionals need to constantly be on the lookout for the next big marketplace. However, because of the illicit nature of the dark web, many websites don’t want to be found; as such, there is no easy way to navigate the dark web. Each website can be thought of as an independent silo. Darknet websites rarely, if ever, link to one another. To find forums and marketplaces on the dark web, as well as in the deep web, you need to know what you’re looking for and how to look for it.

Finally, once the relevant sites have been located and access gained, there is still the serious challenge of monitoring the dark website to gather usable intelligence effectively. Doing this manually requires vast amounts of resources; however, you also can't simply scrape the website, as such activity can quickly get you banned from a site.

This is where Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools like Signal come in.

The role of OSINT tools when monitoring the dark web

OSINT tools allow security professionals to effectively and efficiently monitor the surface, deep and dark web. Using Signal, you can create targeted searches with Boolean logic and run the results through intelligent filters powered by our advanced AI. The process can be automated with real-time SMS and email alerting.

This reduces the need for skilled professionals to spend all their time manually monitoring the entire web and assessing the associated risks. Additionally, it reduces the inherent risk of accessing criminal forums and marketplaces. Instead, security professionals get hyper-relevant alerts that can quickly be assessed and acted upon without ever actually having to go onto the dark web or painstakingly gain access to marketplaces.

This approach is vastly more time-efficient and allows you to put your web monitoring on autopilot; reducing costs, while simultaneously increasing efficacy. As cyber-criminals embrace new technologies, it’s becoming increasingly necessary for security professionals to do the same to stay ahead.

Increase the scope of your monitoring ability and the overall amount of hyper-relevant intelligence at your fingertips. Gather actionable intel in real-time.

Leveraging Telegram as a Data Source for Open Source Intelligence

People are increasingly aware of how their data is accessed and used, whether this is the security of their private conversations, their online browsing history, or even Personal Identifiable Information (PII). With this increase in consciousness for data privacy, chat applications have had to promise better encryption and anonymity if they are to compete.

As such, over the last few years new chat apps, with a primary USP of better privacy have hit the market. This includes the likes of Telegram and Discord. The anonymity and data security offered by these apps have quickly made them popular with both legitimate users and criminals. On Telegram, you don’t have to look too hard to uncover conversations around the sale of illicit goods, examples of extremist views and hate speech, the trading of PII, and more. It’s also worth noting that many marketplaces and forums on the dark web also have chat groups on Telegram.

Many of the groups and channels on apps like Telegram are open to the public, allowing users to easily reach a large potential market relatively risk-free. Not all groups though are open to the public making it substantially harder for security professionals and law enforcement to monitor these channels successfully.  

However, with a tool like Signal, you can view and monitor data from many of these closed communities and hard to access groups easily and efficiently.

About Telegram

Telegram is a messaging app that was launched in 2013. It focuses on supplying a fast, free and above all, secure messaging service. The chat app has end-to-end encryption and several other features which add to it’s perceived security. These features include “secret chats” which store data locally, a timer on messages to self-destruct after a specified time, notifications of screenshots, and messages in secret chats can’t be forwarded. Their main USP is to provide a service where data is protected from thirds parties, including any curious government or security agencies.

Unlike other chat apps, Telegram promotes itself as providing its users with full anonymity, including the ability to set up a unique username and make your phone number to private. It’s because of these security features as well as the offered anonymity that the application quickly became a popular choice for criminal communications.

How Can You Leverage Data from Telegram for OSINT?

There are various channels and groups on the Telegram app in which illicit and criminal activity is discussed or undertaken. This ranges from the sale of illegal goods, stolen data, to planning physical attacks on an organization or individual.

For example, on the group “Carders” on Telegram, a group which has over 5,000 members you can find stolen credit card details including full numbers and CVV codes. This chat group is linked to an online shop getbette.biz (which was taken down in early 2020). Most of the conversations in this group revolve around some form of financial fraud, whether that’s leaked card details or the sale of PII.

On other Telegram groups, you can find details for hacked personal accounts like Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime etc. These logins might be sold for a variety of reasons, such as credential stuffing, or for personal use.

It’s not just dealing in illegally obtained data though. Telegram is used for a broad variety of purposes. A particularly popular one is the sale of drugs. Narcotic Express DE is one such group. With close to 1,000 members, this German group is a closed group which focuses on the purchasing, sale and distribution of drugs. 

Closed groups cannot be found in a search within the app or in the dedicated Telegram search engine, instead, you have to be invited and sent a link by another user in the group. In addition, users can only see posts, not post themselves into the group.

Other examples of leveraging Telegram as a data source include monitoring for:

• Hate speech and death threats,

• Hacking services for sale,

• Exploit kits,

• Data breaches,

• Hate groups.

Using Telegram as an OSINT Source

As outlined above, are plenty of conversations of interest that happen through the Telegram app and its various groups. These groups can offer insight into criminal activity and better enable organizations to protect their assets and staff from emerging threats. For example, you might find information on a recent data breach through the app. Having this early knowledge of the breach is essential for mitigating costs.

However, as with any potential data source, it’s not a case of simply downloading the app. Efficiently scanning and monitoring the platform for potentially relevant or information of interest requires the right tools.

First, groups like Narcotic Express DE are closed groups, meaning locating and gaining access to them is a challenge in itself. Secondly, with features such as message self-destruct constant surveillance is necessary. These challenges mean time and resource need to be devoted to this specific channel, time and resource that might be better spent elsewhere.

Using an OSINT tool gives users the ability to access and utilize hard to reach data sources like Telegram. Data from Telegram is gathered by our data provider Webhose, who scrape the publicly available data from both open and harder to access closed groups continuously. Signal users can set up searches with Boolean logic, selecting Telegram as one of the data source options available. 

How Monitoring Current Events Like the 2020 US Election Can Increase Organizational Security

There are numerous threats that could evolve to seriously impact an organization, from natural disasters, to acts of terror, to targeted attacks on executives. Currently though, tensions around the US election are high on both ends of the political spectrum. There has been an increase in polarization of political views and even militarization of the public in recent months, and many Signal customers have expressed concern.

For many American’s this is seen as the most important election of their lives so far. Fears of voter fraud and voter suppression are rife, which is reflected by an unprecedented number of early votes being cast with more than 90 million votes already cast a week before the election, more than two-thirds of all the votes cast in 2016.

This, paired with a deadly pandemic and a summer of protests, many of which became violent, and one can see the potential for civil unrest around a contentious presidency. To mitigate this risk organizations need relevant intelligence as events unfold to ensure they take the necessary precautions to protect their employees and assets.

As such, we have created advanced tools to enable Organizations to be alerted as early as possible to issues and current events, such as the Election, where the possible fallout could have an impact on their employees and assets.

Monitoring Election Threats in Real-Time Using Signal OSINT

Using Signal security teams can learn of events as they are happening or even before they happen, allowing effective response plans to be enacted, effectively neutralising potential threats. 

To do this users can create custom searches using Boolean Logic to filter intel from key web sources such as social media, the open web, and the dark web. Intel from these sources often acts as an early indicator alerting Signal customer to potential issues in real-time. The data can also be reviewed by our emotional analysis solution for increased data analysis efficiency.

Signal has real-time SMS and email alerting for high-risk threats so that companies can maximise available response time. Once alerted to potential risks the security team can form a final judgement on the threat level and decide whether action needs to be taken.

Final Words on Threat Monitoring with Signal

Threat monitoring isn’t just for events such as a contentious election. COVID-19, earthquakes, storms and other extreme weather events, and even threats of violence against specific executives, can all affect an organization. Signal OSINT software enables security teams to scan a vast number of surface, deep, and dark web channels and sources to gain real-time data on a broad array of emerging threats. 

Anonymous social media forums like 4chan or dark web forums are often where threat actors go to communicate and organize. And social media is often where you can learn of current events as they unfold. So whether it’s customer data for sale online, or an active shooter situation in-store, security teams armed with OSINT can quickly assess and respond appropriately to mitigate risks and damages.

Only when an organisation has a complete picture that incorporates the variety of potential risks and has invested in specific responses and contingency plans can it adapt as needed to mitigate the impact of extreme events.

LERTR: Advancing Data Breach Detection

As threat actors continuously challenge the cyber defences of organizations, companies are increasingly forced to focus on improving cybersecurity practices. However, even the best cybersecurity teams with the largest budgets find it hard to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. And with more technology in use, a growing reliance on cloud storage and the Internet of Things (IoT), there is a growing potential for sensitive data to be exposed to threats. 

As such it’s unsurprising that data breaches, in spite of increased cybersecurity spending, are becoming more common and more expensive to deal with. Employees need intelligent security practices and cyber habits and companies need to be armed with the latest technology and tools for early data breach detection to gain the upper hand when combatting this ever-changing threat.

Data Breaches Need to be Caught Early

The average cost of a data breach in 2020 according to the IBM / Ponemon Institute report was $3.86 million. However, there are plenty of examples where the costs have vastly exceeded this average, escalating into the hundreds of millions or even billions. For example, the Equifax data breach in 2017 cost Equifax $1.7 billion in the end. Another high profile example, Facebook eventually settled on a fine of $5 billion after it’s ‘privacy misstep’ involving Cambridge Analytica. This bill doesn’t include the additional costs and expenses that Facebook has accrued in the development and expansion of their cybersecurity and privacy departments nor does it account for the reputational damage it suffered.

While costs of these extremes are rare, data breaches in general are not. The IBM report goes on to analyse particular subsets of the data noting that the worst impacted is healthcare with an average data breach cost exceeding $7 million. And that the average time taken for an organization to identify and contain a data breach, was an astonishing 280 days, over 9 months. This is in spite of significant evidence that the speed of containment has a significant impact on the overall data beach cost, which if left unchecked can linger for years after the incident. 

How to Prevent Data Breaches

As with many of these things prevention is often the best policy. 

Data Breach Prevention #1: Have Clear Security Protocols 

Every employee should know, understand and be able to abide by strict security protocols to keep company data secure and thwart social engineering tactics. Having protocols is one of the best ways to help prevent data theft by ensuring unauthorized personnel do not have access to data. 

Data Breach Prevention #2: Safeguard Against Human Error

Many data breaches are the result of an employee error. This could be anything from downloading a document off of an illegitimate website, social engineering tactics or even outright blackmail. Employees should only have access to the information that is vital to their particular roles within the company. Those with higher level access should accordingly have higher levels of cyber security training and understanding.

Data Breach Prevention #3: Improved Password Protection

Having strong unique passwords is the first line of defence against any cyberattack. However, nobody, whether they are a high level executive not, is going to be able to remember a dozen or more 12 character passwords that use special characters, letters and numbers. Make sure that 2FA is enabled on all logins, and use a password manager (with 2FA enabled) to auto generate and save complex passwords and ensure the highest levels of password security are enabled.

Data Breach Prevention #4: Update Security Software Regularly

Companies should utilize a high quality antivirus software, anti-spyware program and firewall. Additionally, these programs should be regularly updated to keep them free from vulnerabilities. 

Data Breach Prevention #5:OSINT for Dark Web Forums

By monitoring dark web forums and other chat rooms you can learn of planned attacks, potential exploits and even find exploit kits being sold online. This will give you a good indication of the access methods which have been discovered allowing you to implement a patch quickly to prevent it.

The Tools for Early Detection of Data Breaches: LERTR

Having the right tools is vital if an organization wants to prevent or mitigate the threat of data breaches. Using an OSINT platform like Signal allows security teams to efficiently monitor the surface, deep, and dark web for details or indications of potential and past data beaches. For example, you might find exploit kits targeting a vulnerability specific to your company. This would allow you to prepare a patch for this vulnerability before it was exploited. 

Additionally, hackers might discuss strategies or plans around an upcoming data breach attempt on a dark web forum. Forewarned, you have a better chance of catching and preventing the attempt. However, prevention isn’t always possible. For those scenarios where you do face a data breach you want to discover it as quickly as possible to mitigate the potential damage and limit the costs.

To this end we have integrated with Webhose to advance our early data breach detection capabilities. Additionally, we have launched LERTR, a cyber specific OSINT platform. aa

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Automate Intelligence

With powerful tools at hand you can spend less time searching data and more time planning and implementing responses.

Be the first to Know

Defend against future attacks with relevant actionable intel. And be the first to know about compromised data, control damages.

Better Risk Protection

With improved risk protection you will be the first to know if an event that threatens your brand occurs enabling you to stay ahead. 

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Final Words

Data breaches are increasingly common and expensive. Effective preventative measures need to be put in place and maintained to limit threats. However, even the best defences can fall to a determined threat actor. As such organizations needs to ensure they have all the tools to not only prevent, but also to detect early and contain data breaches quickly should one occur.

Signal is a powerful OSINT tool which allows users to create searches using boolean logic enhanced with NLP, with which security teams can efficiently monitor online activity to detect threats as or even before they emerge.

5 Ways AI is Subtly Shaping the World as we Know it

Artificial Intelligence (AI) describes technologies that can make informed, non-random decisions algorithmically. It has many current and potential applications, it is the current pinnacle of humanities ceaseless drive towards greater and greater efficiency. In particular regard to OSINT though, it enables humans to collect, analyze and interpret huge sets of data, data sets so large that it would be entirely unfathomable to even approach them without machine assistance.

Everyone knows AI is shaping their world in one way or another. But often the changes are subtle, gradual and go unnoticed. Very few of us know what actually goes on behind the steel doors of the big tech companies like Alphabet, Facebook, and Apple. And yet we interact with their AI systems on a daily basis and those systems have huge power over our lives. In this article, we take a look at some of the key ways AI is being used today and how it will become increasingly important as our technologies improve.

5 Ways AI is Shaping the World 

1. Improving and optimising business processes 

The very first robots in the workplace were all about automating simple manual tasks. This is the age of factories and production lines. Today though, it’s not manual tasks that robots are taking over. Instead, software-based robots are taking on repetitive tasks carried out on computers. 

Initially, this was limited to automating simple repetitive tasks, such as “send follow up email 2 if no response after 3 days”. This has already reduced admin tasks and improved business operational efficiencies immeasurably. The next step though is the use of AI technologies to further alleviate some of the more labour intensive ‘intelligent’ tasks such as data gathering, aggregating and analysis, leaving people to spend more time on complex, strategic, creative and interpersonal tasks.

2. More personalization will take place in real-time

Big tech companies are already using data to personalization services. Google Discover, for example, is a feed based on a complex algorithm which reads your online history and tailors the news feed to your particular interests. Other big tech examples are Spotify and Netflix which use AI to suggest relevant media based on your historical behaviour. 

This technology is constantly being evolved and is probably one of the most noticeable in our day to day lives. The end goal is a system which can almost perfectly predict your desires and needs, an outcome none of us are likely to protest against. On the other side of the same coin though is the use of that very same data to target individuals with hyper-relevant ads. This practice can often seem intrusive and is one of the driving forces behind the adoption of VPN’s.

3. AI in the creative space

Some things are still, even in 2020, better handled by humans. That being said AI technologies are now beginning to encroach on the creative spaces. Scorsese's, The Irishman, is one example of this, where Robert De Niro was de-aged on-screen using AI technology. 

There are additional uses though, for example, AI is being used to edit video clips for the purposes of spreading misinformation, and often these edits are incredibly hard to spot. This has led to a new sector of cybersecurity which requires AI technology to spot AI-generated or edited video and audio files. 

4. Increasing AI in Cybersecurity

Even as data grows and is used to progress the development of AI this simultaneously opens up new avenues for exploits by threat actors. For example, AI can be used to create and automate targeted ‘intelligent’ phishing campaigns. AI-supported cyberattacks though have the potential to go much further.  As such, increasingly advanced AI is needed to combat the evolving cyber threat landscape.

Related: How Machine Learning is Changing Modern Security Intelligence 

5. AI learning to perfectly emulate humans

Anyone that keeps their eye on the work that Google is doing will know about their 2019 update, BERT. A natural language processing (NLP) framework which is designed to better understand context and intertextual reference so that they can correctly identify both the searcher's intent as well as the intent behind any content created. 

One of the key challenges that faces AI right now is idiomatic or referential speech; language that has more depth of meaning, for example, determining the importance of the concept of a mother, or understanding a phrase like “six feet under”. Our current research and development project at Signal is one example of the practical applications of overcoming this challenge. It involves using machine learning to enable our software to understand the intent behind text, even when ‘hidden’ behind challenging language like idioms, to more accurately identify threats.  

As these natural language processes advance, so too will conversational AI bots, to the point where, because of the range and complexities of their answers, you would be forgiven for mistaking them as human.

The Future of AI and what that means for OSINT

Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and automation have already revolutionized intelligence gathering. With OSINT tools like Signal security teams and intelligence agents can effectively and efficiently monitor the open, deep, and dark web, setting up customized alerts based on searches that leverage boolean logic. Machine learning takes this intelligence to the next level. It allows for vast amounts of data to be collected, aggregated, and for all the irrelevant hits to be essentially culled, supplying the security team at the end with actionable, relevant intelligence.

Humans play an essential role in this new intelligence lifecycle. In defining the search terms to match security strategies, analysing the end date the system feeds back, reassessing the searches based on the new evidential data and implementing appropriate responses. This is a key role that will no doubt evolve as the technology becomes more accurate, reducing inefficiencies in process.

Why organizations need threat intelligence tools as part of their security defences

What is Threat Intelligence?

Those very same technologies that have allowed globalization, which have brought us all closer together and enabled organizations and brands to achieve the current growth and success they enjoy today, have simultaneously brought with them increased risks. These risks come in the form of increased vulnerabilities and exploitable attack vectors for cyber attackers. Threat intelligence is all about gathering data and knowledge to combat and mitigate these threats. 

Threat intelligence provides organizations with information and context required to effectively predict and even prevent cyberattacks. Additionally, it helps inform security teams of the best practice for both preventative measures and response measures to ensure if there is a cyberattack the resulting costs are minimal. 

In short, threat intelligence is the gathering of evidence-based knowledge to inform action-oriented preventative and reactionary responses to an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.

The Importance of Threat Intelligence

Threat actors are increasingly persistent, and their persistence pays off. Even the most dedicated professionals can’t help but struggle to keep abreast of every new cybersecurity development. New exploits are constantly being discovered or developed and strategies such as social engineering are increasing in complexity. Security teams need up to date data and intelligence on evolving threats if they are going to be able to develop effective responses.

Additionally, within the corporate world one of the key buzzwords of the last two decades has been “accessibility”. Accessibility to data means organizations have necessarily become reliant on digital processes and almost everything is stored on the cloud. Unfortunately, while accessibility is essential to developing efficient processes, and effectively using big data, it also increases the number of threat vectors that attackers can exploit. According to the IBM 2020 data breach report the longer a data breach goes undetected the more expensive it ends up being for the organization. Primarily then, threat intelligence gathered using tools like Signal OSINT can help organizations detect data breaches earlier, mitigating the eventual costs both reputational and monetary.

The final reason that threat intelligence plays such a pivotal role in today’s security is the distinct lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Threat intelligence is a time-consuming business that requires a skilled deft hand to manage. The best threat intelligence solutions use machine learning to automate data collection, then filter and structure data from disparate sources to present only hyper-relevant information to a skilled security team for final analysis. The security team can then use this data to create effective actionable plans based on evidential knowledge. This approach optimizes the performance of both the cybersecurity professional and the intelligence tools being used.

Threat intelligence is actionable — it’s timely, provides context, and is able to be understood by the people in charge of making decisions.

Use Case Examples for Threat Intelligence 

Threat intelligence can be used in a diverse range of strategies which makes it an essential tool for security teams in any organization. It’s most immediate value is in helping prevent an attack by gathering intel on threats in real-time, however, it’s also useful for a broad scope of activities such as managing vulnerabilities, informing decision making, and responding to attacks as or after they happen.

Related: The Role of Threat Intelligence and Cybersecurity in Retail

Prevent an attack

From the time that a vulnerability is found to the time an exploit targeting that vulnerability is available for threat actors is shortening. Security professionals need to know about the vulnerability fast so that they can implement a patch and prevent it from being exploited.

Respond to a Data Breach

Data breaches are costly and often go unnoticed. With the right threat intelligence tools you can determine when a data breach happens fast and take suitable actions to mitigate the costs of any following repercussions.

Manage a Vulnerability

The approach of “patch everything, all the time” is impractical and will likely see organizations fall behind - leaving more serious vulnerabilities open for longer. Threat intelligence can help security teams effectively manage vulnerabilities by giving the salient data to allow them to prioritize patches based on actual risk. 

Risk Analysis

This leads on nicely from the last point. Threat intelligence can help security teams determine the actual risks associated with potential vulnerabilities or attacks by providing additional contextual information. For example, threat intelligence can help security professionals  answer the following questions:

• Which threat actors are using this attack, and do they target our industry?

• How often has this specific attack been observed recently by enterprises like ours?

• Which vulnerabilities does this attack exploit, and are those vulnerabilities present in our enterprise?

• What kind of damage, technical and financial, has this attack caused in enterprises like ours?

Fraud Prevention

Fraud can encompass anything from a fraudulent use of your brand, data, or even impersonation of your employees. For example, an individual might impersonate a doctor and sell fake versions of your prescription medication online.

Incident Response

Having the ability to gather and filter through threat intelligence from across the surface, deep, and dark web in real-time allows security teams to effectively and appropriately respond to incidents as they are happening.

How can Signal threat intelligence improve your organization’s security?

Signal allows our customers to analyze emerging global trends, detect threats in real-time, and then form appropriate security strategies to counter these potential threats as or even before they fully reveal themselves.

One of the key issues that security teams and analysts face is the sheer amount of noise that might surround their brand. Invariably much of this noise is irrelevant to their purposes, however, some of it will be bad. This is why Signal assists with advanced filters with boolean logic as well as features such as our emotional analysis tool.

How Can Organizations Combat Increasing Cybersecurity Gaps due to Remote Working During COVID-19?

Whether they like it or not, many organizations have been forced to adopt work from home practices to continue operating. Working from home isn’t new. In fact, between 2005 and 2017 the numbers of people that were able to work from home grew 156%. However, it has generally been seen as a bonus rather than a given and more traditional workplaces have been resistant. 

Despite the fact that 49% of office workers have never experienced working from home before, this experiment has largely been a success. Empowered with communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts. and Zoom, teams have had deep connectivity even from their own living rooms and many organizations have actually seen increased productivity.

Even so, the challenges of working from home are enormous and are invariably compounded by technological difficulties and poor home security practices.

Security teams, in particular, are feeling the pressure. With numerous workers now operating outside the corporate network security controls, new attack vectors have been opened up which are being exploited by cybercriminals.

Cybercriminals Taking Advantage of the Pandemic

Several security providers have put together data sets which show clear spikes in malicious activity since the beginning of the pandemic. McAfee created its own coronavirus dashboard which shows malicious detections quickly growing from the hundreds into the thousands over the last six months. The most common threat type has been Trojans with Spain and the US being clear outliers in the number of threats detected.

As of August, there were nearly 2 million malicious detections against over 5,500 unique organizations. McAfee go into detail about the families and types of attacks that they’ve seen a spike of cases in since the pandemic began.

WFH challenges for security teams

We’ve established that cybercriminals are taking advantage of the security breaches created by a sudden adoption of working from home but what is it exactly that makes working from home lees secure and what exactly are the security flaws threat actors are targeting?

Working from home doesn’t necessarily mean working from home, it could also mean working from anywhere and many workers have already figured that out. This means workers can (in theory) escape their houses and head out to cafes, restaurants, libraries or other public spaces with free WiFi networks. Zoom, with its virtual background feature, has incidentally supported this. The key issue with this is when workers operate on unsecured open networks. 

Ultimately security professionals have to try and ensure device security and data protection in the work from anywhere model - a challenge made significantly harder with over 50% of employees using their own devices during this period. IT teams have tried to make the security transition easier, with some 70% increasing VPN use among employees, however, 1 in 4 workers according to the Morphisec report were unfamiliar with their company’s security protocols.

This challenge for security professionals has resulted in the majority of security professionals seeing a sizeable increase in workload since their companies began corporatewide remote work. And while most of the transition to WFH went smoothly, respondents reported an increase of security incidents, with the top issues including a rise in malicious emails, non-compliant behavior by employees and an increase in software vulnerabilities.

What can be done to improve WFH security?

Security teams have had years to develop best practices for combating the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. The sudden move to work from home though has shifted power away from them and brought a greater reliance onto workers who simply do not have the expertise to maintain proper cybersecurity protocols. 

Worryingly, 20% of workers said their IT team had not provided any tips as they shifted to working from home. This has opened exploitable attack vectors and introduced new challenges for security professionals. This though isn’t to say that there is nothing that can be done.

Step 1: Control the WFH Environment

This is all about educating employees about best practice and the reasons for these practices when working from home. For example, informing them not to use open networks.

Step 2: Control the WFH Computer

It’s a good idea to supply the computer being used so that you can install the proper security softwares and control access to sites which might offer security risks as well as maintaining control over permissions.

Step 3: Improve your Phishing Responses 

The crossover between home life and work life extends beyond the location. People are more likely to spend time on social media networks and working on private projects than they would be if they were in the office. This opens them up to more phishing campaigns so it’s important they know how to avoid falling for them.

Step 4: Restrict Remote Access to Sensitive Documents and Data

Lockdown permissions and access to sensitive documents and data. If they really need access they can communicate this need with you directly and you can ensure it is done securely and safely. 

Step 5: Monitor Surface, Deep and Dark Web for Emerging Cyber-Threats

Use an OSINT tool like Signal to monitor for cyber threats, planned attacks and data breaches.

Step 6: Encourager VPN Usage

VPNs are a simple and easy way to improve security. It’s worth ensuring the company has a quality VPN service that doesn’t slow a users internet connection unnecessarily as this might persuade workers to turn it off.

Step 7: Don’t Allow Split-Tunnels

Split-tunnelling allows a user to access networks through both the encrypted VPN service and a potentially unsecure network simultaneously.

The Role of Threat Intelligence for Improving Work From Home Cybersecurity

One of the key benefits of using an OSINT solution like Signal is the ability to create customized searches with Boolean logic to uncover hyper-relevant threats in real-time with SMS and email alerts. 

Ways that this has been used in the past to improve cybersecurity include:

• Early detection of data breaches. The average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.86 million. The earlier you catch a data breach the faster you can take action to mitigate the associated financial and reputational damage.

• Discovery of new cyberattack strategies, exploit kits, phishing tactics which were talked about or for sale on the dark web.

• Organizations have uncovered attacks that are yet to be carried out. This is true for both physical attacks against an asset or person as well as cyberattacks. For example, details of a phishing strategy and the targets within the organization were discovered after being talked about in a darknet forum. 

• Monitor employee online activity. For example, this can allow security teams to identify employees who have been targeted and even blackmailed by cyber attackers for access to company data.

6 Ways Signal OSINT is Improving Protection for Executives and VIPs

High profile executives and VIPs are more likely to receive threats of violence, be at the centre of negative online noise, and to be the target for both cyber and physical attacks. This, when paired with their busy schedules (which often involve travel), makes staying ahead of potential threats a particular challenge for their security teams. 

Attackers have a variety of reasons and goals for targeting executives and VIPs. It could be anything ranging from a reaction to company layoffs, to kidnapping for ransom. Whatever the reason though, security teams need to be able to spot the threats, understand the motives, and implement an effective response in a timely fashion.

In this article, we take a look at 6 key ways Signal OSINT is used today by customers to advance protection measures for high profile executives.

How Can Signal OSINT Improve your Executive Security?

Discover private information published online

There are several reasons that an individual might publish private information online. Often, it is in anger or as some form of revenge. The kind of information that has been found published online includes: names, email addresses and logins, physical address, details about an executives families, passport details, medical information, credit card and bank details, and SSN’s.

Having such information leaks opens up an executive to a wide range of potential threats. As a security professional, it is vital to know if and when there is a data breach so that the threat can be neutralized. The longer data is available online the more risk there is. For example, if card details are discovered online the bank can be contacted and the card cancelled.

Read: Detecting and Mitigating the Risks of Data Breaches 

Identify direct threats

Sometimes threat actors are more direct in the way they threaten executives. This could, for example, be a direct threat of violence through an email, instant messaging service or public forum like social media. While the majority of such threats come from so-called “keyboard warriors” there are some which will require further attention and action. 

For example, discussions might be uncovered on the dark web forum with details of a planned attack on an executive. With the prior knowledge of the attack action can be taken to reduce the associated risks.

One way to differentiate between someone that is simply venting their anger on a public forum and someone who genuinely might take action is to look for repetition of negative sentiment.

Emotional analysis

Emotional analysis gives data extra context which allows it to be better understood enabling a more effective and accurate response to the potential risks. 

It also allows you to differentiate between when a negative comment is simply that, a negative comment, or when it needs more serious attention, for example, it’s evolving into a physical threat.

Read: When Does Negative Sentiment Become a Threat? 

Misinformation is spreading about an executive

The spread of disinformation is problematic on a number of levels. For example, throughout COVID-19 misinformation has been spread regarding the virus, it’s root causes and best prevention practices. This has harmed efforts to curtail and control it. Another recent example is the role of misinformation in the 2016 US election. 

There are numerous reasons that individuals and organizations spread misinformation, it could be part of a phishing campaign or an international political assault, for example. Whatever the reason the results are almost always harmful. When an individual spreads misinformation around a CEO or other executive there are real ramifications for brand and reputation which need to be managed.

To combat misinformation organizations need to be equipped with the right tools and understand both what they’re looking for, and the reasons for spreading misinformation.

Disruptive events are planned which could prove a threat to executives.

Events such as protests planned at or near an office or manufacturing location could present logistical problems and delays as well as potentially devolve into riots which would represent a physical threat. Having intelligence on the events and any salient information regarding individuals or groups looking to create trouble will allow you to take appropriate precautionary measures and prevent a threat from escalating.

Travel risks

All travel comes with some inherent risk. However, it is more pronounced for executives who are at increased risk due to the regularity of their travel and high profile.

Additionally, events like extreme weather or terrorist action may make a destination unsafe. As such, having an OSINT solution such as Signal offering an early warning of any particular dangers will enable you to plan alternative routes and otherwise avoid high risk scenarios.

Read: 4 Aspects of Effective Executive Travel Risk Management 

Early warnings with real-time data

Using Signal you can create customized alerts filtered via specific keywords, phrases or even locations. We also have a built-in translation tool so that data can be searched across languages and automatically translated into your default language.

Additionally, you can run alerts through our emotional analysis tool to determine how much of a threat any particular alert is. Finally, get our optional Sapphire bolt-on and utilise our skilled data analysts to further refine your results. 

This approach allows your leave your intelligence gathering on autopilot and not only effectively reduce costs but vastly increase the scope of your monitoring ability and the overall amount of hyper-relevant intelligence at your fingertips. All of this allows you to gather actionable intel in realtime.

Find out more about Executive Protect with Signal…