Extracting data from the dark and deep web is different from collecting data from the open web.

While data on the open web is structured and searchable, data on the dark web is anonymous, unindexed, and unmonitored. As a place where cybercrime, white-collar cybercrime and violent crime are planned, it’s important to understand how to collect data from the darknets while protecting yourself from becoming a target of cybercrime.

Another main difference between open and dark web is that while data on the open web has a standard search engine and domains that remain fairly constant, content on the dark web is more dynamic and elusive. Criminals advertising plans of data leaks or cyber-attacks often transfer their advertisements between marketplaces and platforms to throw law enforcement off of their tracks. In addition, the darknets have their own terminology for communication, causing those who are unfamiliar with the correct search terms to have a harder time finding accurate data.

These two differences make navigation of the darknets particularly challenging.

In response to these challenges, Webz.io’s dark data feeds provide an anonymized network and infrastructure to monitor any activity posing a risk to your organization. Organizations gain access to data while having complete security and protection of their identity. Webz.io’s service also extracts hidden content from the furthest ends of the darknets, such as encrypted and password-protected illicit content.

As the amount of data continues to rapidly expand, organizations will need to broaden their data collection sources to include the darknets. Webz.io’s dark web data feeds extract data from the deepest corners of the dark web and scan for non-public information (NPI), personally identifiable information, and early preparations of terrorist attacks to prevent or minimize the damage done in advance. This type of unstructured and structured data comprehensively covers millions of sites, files, marketplaces and messaging platforms — all in one single endpoint.

Granular filtering capabilities also give organizations control over the type of data that can be searched. For instance, Webz.io’s enriched entity capabilities enable users to search on the dark web for various entities including emails, organizations, locations, wallet ID, addresses, social security numbers, credit card and bank information. These laser-focused search capabilities allow organizations to filter through the massive amount of data in the dark web and uncover relevant risks, such as major bank breaches or drug deals — long before they are carried out.

Webz.io’s dark web feeds data service delivers quality and accurate data that allows you to start mining and gathering relevant data immediately - with a simple RESTful API call. That means that instead of wasting precious time and resources on collecting and extracting data, you can focus your efforts on data analysis that catches criminals and fights crime.

What’s more, our data service enables organizations to meet these needs at scale and on demand so that they can constantly monitor threats across the darknets. As the rate of cyber threats rises across different industries, including healthcare, finance, intelligence and law enforcement, the need to scale data collection and extraction from the darknets increases to mitigate these risks.