From a cybersecurity point of view, the dark web is like a huge marketplace where sensitive data (personal data, bank details, email addresses, credentials, etc.) are found alongside kits for carrying out cyber-attacks. Indeed, 15 billion credentials are currently in circulation [1], and it is reportedly possible to buy malware for between $50 and $5000 [2].

Why does business data end up on the dark web? And how to identify possible data leaks? Before we get to the heart of the matter, let’s clarify a few things about the concepts of deep web, dark web and dark net.

Web and mobile applications are at the core of most companies’ activities. Whether you’ve already deployed them or that they are still under development, some misconceptions about their security are still present, even though it is a crucial topic to conduct your business in good conditions. 

Here are the 9 preconceived ideas that we most often encountered.

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Shopify and many more, offer real possibilities for creating sites that are both ergonomic and efficient. However, a negative image is still associated with CMS websites: they would be insecure and easy targets for malicious hackers.

What are the risks of cyberattacks on these sites? What specific elements of CMS are to be monitored?

If you are in charge of a CMS platform, this article will help you to identify the main risks and will provide you with points of vigilance to reinforce the level of security.

Do you know why phishing is so dangerous?

Because it combines IT skills with knowledge of human psychology. In fact, a phishing email relies on human psychological drivers to first get the opening of the email and to then push to click.

Technical skills are of course necessary to increase the likelihood of clicks, e.g. to spoof a legitimate sender, to create an interface clone, to forward to malicious domains, etc.

But today, we will look into the psychological drivers that drive action during phishing. We have taken 8 commonly used drivers and associated them with different subjects that can be used as pretexts for phishing.

Updated: 16 Feb. 2021

Business logic flaws remain a type of little-known vulnerability in IT-Security. They are not errors in the logical reasoning, but flaws related to the working of a web application. They are different from technical vulnerabilities, which directly relate to code, implementation or configuration errors.

We regularly find logic flaws during penetration tests, on all types of applications. We find them most frequently on e-commerce sites and SaaS software.

Web attack types

Web attacks can be divided into two basic categories

• Those related to technical flaws (control weaknesses, lack of rigor in the developments, cryptographic weaknesses…)
• Those related to logical flaws (weaknesses in the business logic of the web application)

There are many types of flaws and different attacks to exploit them. Attacks can also be combined.
The direct consequences of an attack generally fall into the following broad categories:

• Illegal access to certain data (theft)
• Loss or modification of data
• Ilegal access to some functions of the web application
• Execution of some actions on the website on behalf of other users
• Malware installation
• Web Server takeover (and more)

With some more efforts, attackers can perform some pivots and in the end gain control over the company’s internal servers, even if the website is not hosted on the internal network of the company.
The vast majority of these attacks can either be invisible or be quickly spotted, stay active or be stealthy.

The impact for the company

A web application attack can impact both the company and the website users (clients, consumers, employees).