How Watching The Dark Web Could Have Stopped A $140,000 Theft
In this real-life example, we explore how utilising threat intelligence software like Signal could have easily spotted and halted a massive employee data breach which cost Llyods bank over $140k!
Dayne Lynn, a young Lloyds Bank employee from Scotland, was convicted at the start of 2019 for stealing $AUD140,000 from his customers’ accounts after he was blackmailed by criminals he met on the dark web.
The crimes began when Mr Lynn joined an internet chat forum and made the mistake of revealing he worked at Lloyds Bank in Glasgow. Mr Lynn was working as a member of a team that investigates fraudulent payments and transfers, where he had access to the accounts of many bank customers.
It wasn’t long before a group of criminals on the dark web forum ordered him to steal from accounts and transfer the money to them.
On July 18, 2016, between 7:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Lynn accessed almost 20 customer accounts and took tens of thousands of pounds, overcoming bank transfer restrictions using his Lloyds Bank employee credentials to access the accounts. The bank reversed all of the stolen money, however, the identity of the culprit couldn’t be established for over a year and Mr Lynn and his dark web associates almost got away with the crime.
The theft could have been averted if the bank had used Signal. Signal constantly monitors dark web traffic and simple search terms such as Lloyds Bank, banker or bank accounts might have allowed the bank to stop its staffer before he went down the road of fraud.
Data Breaches Can Be Stopped Before They Happen
The Ponemon Institute’s 2018 IBM Cost of a Data Breach study reported the average time it takes to identify a data breach is a shocking 196 days.
The time it takes Signal security intelligence to identify a potential breach being arranged on the dark web: minutes.
Australian and New Zealand banks, institutions, businesses, hospitals and ASX/NZX-listed companies can all receive early indicators so you can be proactive about security and not caught off guard.
As the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner recently found
78 per cent of data breaches involve individuals’ contact information
a third of the data breaches are financial details and a third health information.
If You Know Potential Threats, You Can Set Your Own Search Terms
Signal is an extremely user-friendly app and can be used by any staff members with minimal training. Simply put in the search terms you feel your institution needs to monitor; Signal’s easy interface then provides alerts when what you’re looking out for appears online.
On a daily basis, Signal spots and reports Dark Web users offering to sell documentation and templates from banks and government as well as credit card numbers and logins
Signal parses through millions of postings and conversations to recognise questionable behaviour.
Signal is designed to recognise conversations regarding your business (bank, hospital, university) and determine the tone and context of potentially harmful language
You as the client set up your own monitoring parameters. For example, our Hollywood filmmaking clients ask us to identify those who want to hack, leak and illegally distribute intellectual property and scripts
Signal does all the heavy lifting, trawling the internet and sending you proactive alerts so that you hear about risks first – not 196 days later.
Data breach study author Larry Ponemon estimated a business is more likely to experience a data breach of 10,000 records than a person is to catch the flu over winter.
The average cost of EACH data breach in 2020 is anticipated to exceed $150 million, with worldwide costs estimated at $2 trillion
Don’t let a failure to watch the web cost your company.
Signal offers free demonstrations of outstandingly effective software. We have dozens of examples of top sharelisted companies relying on Signal software to avert risk. www.GetSignal.info or email info@signalpublicsafety.com
Seeing in the Dark - Exposing the Dark Web
In 2017 we launched our dark web monitoring functionality. From there we have evolved it into an invaluable part of our security intelligence offering which is used by corporate security teams across the globe.
There is plenty of online information regarding the dark web – mostly accurate, although it can be daunting to understand the various nuances. There are numerous benefits that come with monitoring of the dark web.
When it comes to dark web monitoring, Signal risk intelligence software offers a comprehensive service which enables security professionals to gain increased situational awareness using targeted, highly relevant data gathered from dark web sources.
Why did we add Dark Web monitoring to Signal threat intelligence software?
The Dark Web is the place to lurk out of sight, with complete anonymity, which makes it a logical centre for criminals to gather, discuss illegal activity, and sell illegal goods and services. Because of this, those bodies and security teams which are able to effectively monitor the blogs, forums, and chat rooms of the dark web have an invaluable source of information on nefarious or illegal activities - and are often among the very first to know about important and relevant information that may impact their company or organisation.
Advanced warning for things like data breaches, reputational risks and physical threats to assets allow companies to effectively form strategies to deal with and mitigate the threats to their organisations.
These conversations and activities are highly relevant to many Signal subscribers, hence the addition of the Dark Web as a data source for Signal Gold subscribers in 2017.
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Examples of activities that have been identified from dark web content include:
Online markets selling stolen and fake goods
Impersonation of individuals or organizations
Details in regard to hacking or incitement to hack
Reputational risk via fake news or impersonation
Illegal activities such as drugs and drug paraphernalia
One of the benefits that Signal provides is the ability to review the dark web post content without needing to utilize a Tor browser – simply review the content from within your Signal browser session.
Dark web monitoring is available for Signal subscribers with a gold or better subscription– if you are interested in more information in regard Signal or the dark web content, then contact us info@signalpublicsafety.com