What is dark web monitoring? Benefits, limitations, and top tools

Dark web monitoring is a cybersecurity data scanning technique for uncovering information on the dark web — the hidden part of the internet that’s inaccessible to common search engines and browsers. The goal is to track down the personal details of individuals and organizations that’ve been stolen and leaked in data breaches, such as credentials, personally identifiable information, hacked emails, intellectual property, and more.

This guide will help you understand how dark web monitoring works and how it can help you better protect your personal information from being exploited.

Understanding the dark web

To understand what dark web monitoring is, let’s position it in relation to the two other layers of the internet — the deep web and the surface web.

The dark web is the deepest layer of the internet that exists on overlay networks and is only accessible with special software, configuration, and authorization. The dark web content is not indexed by search engines and is typically hidden there intentionally.

The dark web is part of the deep web that also contains unindexed, encrypted information that’s hidden behind logins and passwords and is thus non-searchable — think email messages, paywalled content, private databases, bank account details, and so on. 

Lastly, the surface web is the layer you’re most familiar with as this is where you find websites and tools you use day to day. It’s visible, accessible, and indexed by search engines.

Even though the dark web occupies just 4-6% of the entire internet, the harm it can do is far-reaching. Most internet users will never come across a dark web site in their lives, yet that doesn’t mean their personal data can’t appear there.

How does dark web monitoring work?

Since average individuals can’t access the dark web, dark web monitoring is typically done by dedicated services. They scan darknet websites, forums, data dumps, and marketplaces continuously to find any traces of specific compromised information, such as Social Security numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, medical identification numbers, bank account numbers, phone numbers, driver’s licenses, leaked corporate data, and so on. 

They use a range of techniques, from automated web crawlers similar to search engine bots to advanced machine learning methods. These tools are trained to access and sift through millions of records to find mentions of the target.

Data sources and scanning techniques

Automated dark web monitoring tools scan for specific keywords, phrases, or information related to an individual or an organization. Once there’s a match, the tool will send an automated alert to take action.

The typical data sources scanned by dark web security monitoring software include: 

• Dark web marketplaces 
• Encrypted forums and message boards
• Data breach lists
• Pastes and leak sites

The tools use a range of techniques to scan and identify compromised data. They include web crawling, keyword monitoring, data fingerprinting (creating unique identifiers for sensitive data and then searching for the “fingerprints” of this data), social listening, and community monitoring, among others. Advanced techniques include the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to uncover suspicious patterns.

Automated monitoring vs. manual investigation

Not all information can be successfully uncovered using only automated monitoring.

While automated tools can tirelessly scan millions of records and trigger immediate alerts upon detecting suspicious activity, they’re also context-blind and may trigger false positives.

The next level of dark web monitoring is what can be called dark web surveillance — a holistic investigation of cybercriminal activities on the dark web involving both automated and manual information analysis. Dark web surveillance marries automated tools with human intelligence, where human security analysts manually inspect dark web sources, validate automated alerts, and even interact with threat actors undercover to gather insider intel.

The majority of mature corporate security operations centers use a combination of both automated and manual dark web monitoring solutions. For individual use, however, a simple dark web scanner will often be enough to ensure peace of mind. 

Why is dark web monitoring important?

While dark web monitoring sounds like something only corporations and governments might be interested in, it can be tremendously useful for everyone cautious about their safety online. 

A lot of personal information ends up on the dark web without the victims being aware, and this can often have real-life consequences when the data is sold to cybercriminals, used in scams and identity theft, or exploited in phishing attacks to gain unauthorized access to corporate networks. 

Let’s explore key benefits of monitoring the dark web both for companies and individuals.

Preventing identity theft and fraud

Gaining access to your full name, address, and Social Security number can be enough to steal your identity. Criminals exploit such information to take out loans and open credit cards in victims’ names.

If any of this personally identifiable information is found on the dark web, it can be a huge red flag that someone could be preparing to exploit it against you.

Using a dark web scanner, you can detect this early and take preventive actions such as freezing your credit, notifying your bank, changing passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and starting to monitor for fraud before the damage is done.

Detecting data breaches early

Monitoring the dark web can be the fastest way to learn that a data breach has occurred. Both businesses and individuals can use it to see if their sensitive information has been leaked, often before a data breach is even publicly disclosed. 

The sooner you uncover this and start acting, the harder it will be for cybercriminals to gain anything from it. When running the dark web scans 24/7, it’s possible to detect a data breach almost instantly and mitigate the risks as soon as possible so that malicious actors have less time to act on the stolen data.

Safeguarding personal and professional reputation

As an extension of who you are online, your digital identity is extremely important. Monitoring the dark web for any traces of your contact details, messages, medical information, and other private data can help avoid potential impersonation scams, harassment, and doxxing (revealing your private information publicly without your consent).

Dark web monitoring services are equally useful for protecting professional reputation. In case of leaked corporate details, such as emails, internal documents, or customer credentials, you can flag this internally as early as possible and take timely action before this data makes your company a target of a phishing scam or extortion.

Top 10 dark web monitoring tools

Online users today have a choice in how they want to monitor their security. There are, of course, simple dark web scanners offering basic checks in a few clicks. But you’ll also see that the best dark web monitoring software includes comprehensive identity protection and credit monitoring features. 

Here’s a summary of how the best dark web monitoring solutions compare:

Norton 360 with LifeLock

Norton 360 with LifeLock is a family of tools offering all-in-one cybersecurity protection. It also acts as insurance against identity theft with coverage of up to $3 million per adult, including reimbursement for stolen funds, personal expenses and legal help. Every subscription plan includes dark web monitoring, in addition to identity and Social Security number alerts and credit monitoring. 

The product’s strengths include comprehensive services, insurance coverage, U.S.-based restoration help, 24/7 live support, and up to 10 devices included in each plan. Among the weaknesses are pricey higher tiers and the U.S.-centricity of the services.

Aura

Aura is another all-in-one security protection suite for individuals and families. It offers identity, fraud, and child protection for as low as $10–$32 per month (billed annually). For adult-oriented plans, the product features identity theft insurance of $1 million per adult, fraud remediation assistance, account breach monitoring, home and auto title monitoring, financial fraud protection and a host of other essential services. 

Identity Guard

One more affordable all-in-one security product for individuals and families, Identity Guard is an Aura-owned ID theft and dark web monitoring service powered by AI. It offers both basic and premium identity and credit protection. All plans include  $1 million in identity theft insurance, dark web monitoring, safe browsing, and a password manager. It also provides credit, social media and home title monitoring on higher tiers. 

Experian

Experian is a global data broker and consumer credit reporting company that also offers products for credit monitoring and identity protection. They provide personal data protection, real-time alerts about suspicious activities, and identity theft insurance of up to $1 million, in addition to daily scanning of 600,000 dark web pages to detect if a user’s data has been stolen.

McAfee Identity Monitoring

McAfee Identity Monitoring is one of the many features included in McAfee+ plans. The product offers 24/7 dark web monitoring for signs of personal data surfacing in data breaches, in addition to antivirus, VPN, password manager and more. The range of monitored data is perhaps one of the broadest among similar tools. Once data is detected, the service sends real-time alerts and offers guidance on the actions to take. Higher tiers include identity theft insurance coverage and restoration support. 

NordVPN

NordVPN offers the Dark Web Monitor feature included in its VPN subscription plans. With a one-click activation, this dark web monitoring software starts scanning 24/7, sending alerts once any traces of your personal information are found on the dark web. However, it only scans for your email address and associated credentials and passwords. To monitor more personal details, users should subscribe to the highest-tier Prime plan for $7.39/month to scan the dark web for SSN, phone number and email address.

Have I Been Pwned

Have I Been Pwned is a free service created by renowned security expert Troy Hunt in 2013. The service offers simple and quick checks to determine whether emails and passwords have been exposed in known data breaches. You can also subscribe to get alerts in case your email or password surfaces in a future breach. As one of the richest repositories of data breaches, it’s also used by other products via API.

Mozilla Monitor

Mozilla Monitor is a free data breach scanning service powered by Have I Been Pwned data. It only scans for email address exposure in known data breaches and doesn’t scan the dark web beyond published breach lists. You can use it as a standalone dark web monitoring tool or as a feature integrated into the Mozilla Firefox browser. You can also sign up for future email exposure alerts for free.

Avast BreachGuard

Avast BreachGuard is a data leak monitoring service by Avast that also helps you remove your personal information from data brokers. The dark web monitoring part of the tool identifies whether your personal data has been leaked in any data breach and provides security guidance. The service also provides support with identity theft issue resolution from the company’s Identity Assist team.

Surfshark Alert

Surfshark Alert is a personal data leak alert service included in Surfshark One plans for all-in-one security protection. The Alert feature helps you keep track of your personal information and get instantly notified if it’s exposed in a data leak or could be compromised in a malware attack on your device. In addition, you get a VPN, alternative ID, antivirus and more advanced digital security features.

Challenges and limitations of dark web monitoring

The limitations of dark web monitoring tools come down mostly to the inaccessibility of data for dark web scanners:

• When communication happens on end-to-end encrypted platforms (for example, Telegram), or in private chats, password-protected marketplaces, and invite-only forums, accessing this data may require a human analyst infiltrating these channels.
• If the service is new, hidden, or otherwise unmapped to the scanning tool that relies on crawling only known sources.
• Automated scanners can’t understand context as they only search for keywords or patterns, so when threat actors use slang, codewords, or obfuscation, the scanners might overlook a threat or trigger a false positive.
• Not all tools scan 24/7. In some cases, the intervals are daily or even weekly, which can be critical in case of a data breach that requires immediate action.  
• Compromised data may be fragmented, corrupted, or incomplete, leading to limited information about the scope of leaked details.

Lastly, the number one limitation of dark web monitoring is that it can’t protect your data from appearing on the dark web in the first place. It’s reactive, not preventative, and often only sends alerts for data that has already been compromised. The rest depends on how swift and effective your mitigation steps are.

Ways to protect your information from the dark web

Prevention is the best remedy, and it starts with the simplest steps available to everyone. Make the following part of your cyber hygiene, and your personal details will have far less chance of ending up in the wrong hands, on the dark web, and elsewhere.

Use unique, strong passwords

Leaked credentials are the most common type of data found on the dark web, and they can also lead cybercriminals to multiple accounts if you have this bad habit of reusing the same passwords. 

If you want a simple way to come up with unique passwords every single time and also store them effortlessly, use a password manager. Many are free, and some of them even offer a way to alert you if your credentials are found in known data breaches.

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA)

2FA gives you an extra layer of protection, so enable it wherever possible. For added security, tie it down to an authenticator, like Google Authenticator. Even if your password does get leaked, cybercriminals will have a hard time accessing your accounts.

Limit the information you share online

Oversharing might have been common in the early days of social media, but now it’s simply unsafe. Birthdays, addresses, pet names, and your mother’s maiden name can all tip off cybercriminals about the answers to common security questions and make you more susceptible to impersonation scams.

Be cautious with phishing emails

Databases available on the dark web provide attackers with access to vast amounts of stolen personal information. Sourced from data breaches, these databases have proliferated and are often offered at low cost, containing details like email addresses, passwords, and credit card details—all of which can be used to create tailored, highly convincing phishing emails.

Monitor unusual activity on financial and online accounts

Credit card details can be stolen, online banking accounts hacked, and scammers can take your identity to buy things or intercept and steal income tax refunds—the list of potential financial frauds is long, and new types of fraud are continually evolving. Regular monitoring helps mitigate most of the risks, or, at least, reduce the potential for greater damage. 

Remove personal data from the surface web 

As counterintuitive to our sharing culture as it sounds, this step will minimize the scope of your personal details floating out there on the regular web. Data removal services like Onerep help trace down and remove your personal information from the internet, including Google and people-search websites acting as data brokers. This makes it harder for bad actors to target you with all sorts of scams and robocalls while also protecting your data from appearing on the dark web, too.

FAQs

How can I prevent my data from being exposed on the dark web?

Create strong passwords and update them in a timely manner, use a password manager and 2FA, and install dark web monitoring tools to identify which data might have been exposed to take more proactive measures. You can also use the Onerep tool, which helps remove leaked data from data brokers and prevents it from being used for phishing attacks.

What are the best dark web monitoring services?

The best dark web monitoring services for individuals include Norton LifeLock and Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, while solutions for businesses feature SpyCloud, Constella Intelligence, and ZeroFox, to name a few. 

Can individuals use dark web monitoring tools?

Absolutely! Many dark web monitoring tools are consumer-grade and some of them are free, letting you quickly check the safety of your personal details with no cybersecurity skills required.

Can dark web monitoring software prevent identity theft?

No, dark web monitoring tools can’t prevent identity theft on their own, but they are still helpful. Once you know about your data breach, you can address compromised data to avoid identity fraud.

How is dark web monitoring different from antivirus software?

Dark web monitoring solutions only scan the dark web for traces of personal data records. Antivirus software can detect and protect against malware, monitor your device’s security status and remove cyber threats, but it doesn’t scan the dark web unless the service provider includes this feature.