The Correlation Between Dark Web Exposure and Cybersecurity Risk

The presence of any data relating to an organization on the dark web demonstrably increases its risk of a cyberattack

That is the headline finding of this landmark report from Searchlight Cyber and the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center, which was conducted to determine if intelligence sources from the dark web are correlated with the frequency of cyber insurance claims. 

Marsh McLennan analyzed Searchlight’s dark web dataset against a sample of 9,410 organizations with an overall breach rate of 3.7 percent from 2020 to 2023 to determine whether there was a correlation between data breaches and findings on the dark web in the year before the incident. The analysis consists of a single-variable analysis, examining the impact of findings in dark web intelligence sources one-by-one, and a multi-variable analysis, examining the impact of findings in dark web intelligence sources jointly.

The study – The Correlation Between Dark Web Exposure and Cybersecurity Risk – found that all nine of Searchlight’s dark web intelligence sources are correlated to increased cybersecurity risk. 

download the full report for all of the data on:

• How individual dark web intelligence sources relate to the risk of a cyberattack – find out how factors such as market listings, forum posts, and dark web traffic independently correlate to an organization’s increased likelihood of a cybersecurity incident.
• The combined risk of multiple areas of dark web exposure – calculated through a multi-variable analysis, which demonstrates how using multiple dark web intelligence sources can generate a more reliable view of cybersecurity risk.
• Recommendations of how organizations can reduce their cybersecurity risk – by gaining visibility of their dark web exposure and taking action to mitigate the likelihood of a cyberattack.