THE DARK WEB AS A TOOL, AND RESOURCE ?
THE DARK WEB AS A TOOL, AND RESOURCE ?
As with nearly any tool, while intent is present during the design and introduction phase, users are the ones who ultimately decide what to do with what they have in their hands. Many have certainly used a wrench-handle to tap in a nail, and security experts work hard to make the same effective twist of the information provided on the Dark Web. Under the banner of validating their wares, many malware vendors have to advertise and demonstrate their tools – providing opportunities for security researchers to gather, evaluate, inform the market and/or engineer mitigation strategies for distribution across Open Source resources and vendor sponsored security databases alike. Similarly, information about coordinated cyber attacks is often shared in forums or user groups, along with specific bundles of services – all of which can be quickly acquired and used by top-tier researchers to determine how to circumvent the circumvention; Cyber Whack-A-Mole is a valid enough name for much of the defensive cyber research and implementation. Crucially, just as RaaS exists, so too do defensive services for the industries and organizations we readers are likely to be supporting.