Author: Nirmal Jain

More than 94% of the world’s information resides in the deep and dark webs. Only 6% is available on the surface web and accessible using the usual browsers.

It is important to understand the difference between Deep Web from Dark Web. The Deep Web is not accessible to search engines for various functional and operations reasons. This may include over 90% of the entire web. The dark web includes all sorts of information, with restricted access, but usually of great value if exploited. The data could include research, medical/financial/identity records, important defence documents or protocols to holding all kinds of illegal marketplaces for drugs, weapons, cryptocurrencies and more. The Dark Web is that part of the Deep Web that could use encryption software to make the user’s identities and IP addresses undetectable.

Thus, the most difficult-to-access part of the Deep Web is the Dark Web or the Darknet in another synonym. The anonymization in dark web leads to the predominance of malicious and criminal activities in that hidden and encrypted environment.

Various crimes and heinous actions are prevalent in the dark web to make gains through extortion, sabotaging networks, or stealing organizations’ data. On a social scale many crimes such as children pornography and pedophile networks, drugs and arms trade, human trafficking, terrorism and recruitment of extremists, planning terrorist attacks, murderers for hire, hacked digital media trade, counterfeit documents, fraud, are also reported on the dark web.

It is well known that cyber criminals are interested in databases, financial transactions, emails, identities and login credentials. Typically, hackers steal this data through phishing attacks and through use of malware. And all of this is strategized, planned and executed in the Dark Web.

Traditionally, cybersecurity investments have been largely limited to protection and prevention of IT infrastructure and perimeter defence. Monitoring the dark web does not seem urgent and immediate concern for most organizations. But in the current scenario, dark web remains to be the place from where most cyberattacks are initiated and managed. The covert operations from dark web can expose sensitive data and trade secrets to  damage business beyond repair.

• Domino’s India data of 180 million orders leaked online
• Air India data breach highlights third-party risk
• Police Exam Database Exposes 500K Indian Citizens’ PII
• Covid-19 related data of thousands of Indians leaked online

Knowing where to look is the key to protecting your assets before a cyberattack occurs. And the dark web makes it highly complicated for any individual or organisation. But, organisations cannot just be content with cybersecurity protection measures for their core IT assets. As dark web becomes the root cause of cyber attacks, detection, discovery and decoding the signals will actually determine the status of every orngaisation’s security posture.

Today, a large portion of hacking includes acts of theft and threats to organized gangs, supported financially to earn profits on a large scale. Unlike the past, the hacking acts are not limited to individuals. The shift to an organized crime to achieve financial gains or meet covert political goals makes it extremely difficult to trace such acts of cyberthreats.

In terms of cybersecurity threats, hacking communities are active on Dark Web platforms, where hackers exchange experiences and share information, in addition to circulating hacking tools, malware, ransomware, breached data, and planning large-scale cyberattacks resembling a pattern of an organized crime

Organizations must now reconsider conventional methods and shift to contemporary techniques to outpace with the evolution of cyberattacks.

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)

Cyber Threat Intelligence is gathering demand and increasing interest from researchers and security practitioners, and users. CTI provides evidence-based know-how about cyber threats. Considering the gained knowledge, organizations can make cybersecurity decisions, including detecting, preventing, and recovering from cyberattacks

CTI provides information related to: Who, What, Where, How, and When of cyber attacks from the dark web. CTI is expected to utilise data from multiple sources. Sources can be internal (such as network events log files, firewall logs, alerts, responses to previous incidents, the malware used for attacks, and network flows), or external (such as reports from other institutions or governments, and experts’ blogs). The CTI framework is also organised to address cybersecurity risks at various levels – strategic, tactical and operational.

CTI is a data-driven process involves several phases of collecting, processing, and analyzing the data as per the security threats perceived and experienced by the organization.

The key phases in CTI are as outlined below:

1. Intelligence planning/strategy
2. Data collection and aggregation
3. Threat analytics
4. Intelligence usage and dissemination

To understand the intelligence an organization requires, it should acquire several components, including inspecting the existing security domain, determining the current cyber threats, monitoring its cyber assets, and modeling potential directions of future threats.

The threat from dark web is persistent, advancing and ever-changing to become complex and intertwined. For cybersecurity threats from the dark web, not feeling secure is the best strategy to feel safe. Staying invested before the attacks occur can go a long way in enhancing the security of your data, assets and competitive edge.

Crafsol has the expertise to help you build and implement cyber threat intelligence that goes beyond the traditional methods of monitoring and securing your organisation to address the threats posed by dark web. Get in touch with us at connect@crafsol.com

Is Metaverse the next big thing? What is it, really? Who owns it? What will it mean to our businesses? Or is it all personal? 

For now, Metaverse is more about questions surrounding it rather than firm and clear answers.

Imagine someone asking you about the internet in 1970s. It was all possibilities. The same is the case with Metaverse today with its many possibilities and scenarios. But if there is one thing that we can be sure about is that the Metaverse is going to change our lives, sooner than later. Therefore, we need to learn, explore and adapt. 

What is Metaverse, really?

As of now, the Metaverse is best defined broadly, rather than exactly. Broadly, Metaverse is a shift of technologies that will possibly combine the physical world with the virtual cyberspace for an integrated and immersive experience. From 3D world, Augmented and Virtual Reality to digital economy which includes crypto currencies, NFTs assets, there are several technologies that are driving this shift. 

In more simple words, Metaverse is both physical and digital. It’s a unified living experience where we can work, play, relax, socialise and transact in a completely virtual yet immersive environment. 

But has it not existed already? Yes, there are quite a few examples such as Fornite, Second Life, several gaming apps which have already shown what a Metaverse could feel like. In the future, the integrations between these platforms will be wide and far and shape the Metaverse as a seamless experience touching many aspects of our lives.

It’s important to recognise the key differences between the what drives the internet today and connected world that will drive the Metaverse. While most of the interactions and transactions on the internet today are centrally controlled and monitored, metavers is based on a decentralised, peer-to-peer architecture. The internet today still offers digital payments that can be claimed in the physical world. On the contrary, metavers is going to be entirely driven by digital currencies and tokens. In the today’s scenario digital assets are not always transferable. In the Metaverse, you can buy or sell digital assets, just as you would do in the physical world. Metaverse is not a mere extension of the today’s internet but an explosion of possibilities surpassing its current limitations.

Why Metaverse now?

Not a day would pass without someone announcing an entry into Metaverse. Take a look at some recent developments for instance:

• Facebook has renamed it Meta
• Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision to get into Metaverse
• HSBC buying a virtual plot of land in Sandbox
• Infosys launched a metaverse foundry to build use cases and educate customers
• China has set up a regulatory body for Metaverse companies

There are several factors driving the growth of metaverse. The pandemic has created a compulsive need for environment with connected, shared digital experiences. Users are looking to extend their experiences further through the meta verse. Several technologies such as AR, VR are now converging to enable immersive experiences. The internet penetration is peaking fast. The need for communities based on shared values and interests, and cutting across the physical boundaries of the world, is being increasingly felt. The ecosystem for participation is ripe, as the convergence of enabling technologies leads to rapid growth in metaverse use cases.

Metaverse Applications – what’s going to take-off in near future?

Beyond social

From facebook announcing a clear intent to create a metaverse of social interactions to increasing digital communities wanting to develop common virtual experiences in gaming, business, governance, learning and many other areas, social interactions are going to shift to the metaverse environment in near future.

A smart watch is not enough to track your health.

Having a smart watch will seem great to anyone who is serious about improving their health. It can track how much you exercised, how many calories you burned, and even your pulse.
But does it track a person’s mental health? No.

An vital factor concerning overall health is not being measured. If there were a single platform collect and meaningfully display all data concerning mental and physical health, it would be easier to measure and improve a person’s health.

Likewise just the ERP or CRM alone may not be enough to track the health of your business, especially in uncertain times such as COVID. For times like this, there has to be a unified dashboard to track four key areas:

• Financial health
• Production health
• Order booking health
• Resources health

All these aspects are important and interlinked. For example, a quality manager’s main concern is the number of rejections and how to reduce them, but data about budget, resources, and access to order book will help improve his performance. Similarly, the marketing team could leverage information about production to build a better marketing strategy.

However, with your team scattered and business being affected by uncertainty, keeping track of vast data and coordinating with you team becomes challenging.

A common platform where data is collected and presented meaningfully for entire team to access would make considerable difference to your business. That’s exactly what a digital dashboard does.

What a digital dashboard can do for you

A digital dashboard is an online tool that uses advanced business intelligence technology to collect information from various sources, and display it in simple yet meaningful manner, and make it easy for you to share it with your team. While digital dashboards have already appeared on the business horizon, advanced versions of these tools use business intelligence programming to bring better visualization and insights to data. This technology ensures seamless coordination and insightful decision-making. While your production team can upload excel sheets relating to inventory, the dashboard can also be linked to your social media accounts to fetch data about how your online marketing campaign is doing.

Why implement digital dashboard

• Faster to deploy and easier to use than conventional softwares.
• Can collect data from digital accounts as well as uploaded digital documents.
• Puts all your data on a secure server making it easy for your team to access it remotely.
• While whole data is available in one place, access can be restricted by setting up permissions.
• Offers control over which data you want to monitor, and helps make insightful decisions.

Conclusion

Digital dashboards are emerging as a preferred way to seamlessly collect data from teams and achieve better coordination and decision-making for businesses. At Crafsol Technologies, we work to make these tools available to you at the right price points. Crafsol’s digital dashboard makes use of advanced business intelligence programming to collect and present data insights.

If you want to improve data collection, coordination and decision-making of your team, get in touch with us. Write to us at connect@crafsol.com.