Dark Web Monitoring: What It Is, What It Isn't, and When It's Worth Paying For

In 2023, international police took down Genesis Market, a major dark web platform where criminals bought and sold stolen credentials by the bundle. The RCMP talked publicly about working with the FBI on that operation and how many Canadian victims were involved.

That case was a good reminder: when someone steals your logins in Hamilton, they don't keep them in a spreadsheet on Barton Street—they get traded around, often on hidden marketplaces you'll never see.

That's where all this "dark web monitoring" talk comes from.

Quick Reality Check: What's the "Dark Web" in This Context?

For our purposes, forget TV shows.

We're talking about:

• Forums and marketplaces that aren't indexed by Google
• Places where stolen email/password combos, credit cards, corporate VPN credentials, and database dumps get traded or dumped

Canadian threat assessments have been pointing out for years that criminal groups rely heavily on these underground ecosystems to monetize stolen data.

What Dark Web Monitoring Actually Does

Vendors and MSPs use different tools, but the idea is similar:

• They monitor known dark web sites, paste bins, and leak sources
• They look for your company domains (e.g., @yourcompany.ca), specific email addresses, sometimes phone numbers or other identifiers
• When they spot a match, you get an alert

The alert usually includes:

• Where it was found (forum, marketplace, leak dump)
• What was exposed (email, hashed password, plain-text password, etc.)
• When it was first seen

The point isn't to "clean" the dark web. You can't. The point is early warning so you can:

• Force password resets
• Tighten MFA
• Watch for suspicious logins or fraud

What Dark Web Monitoring Doesn't Do

Let's clear away the marketing spin.

Dark web monitoring does NOT:

• Prevent breaches by itself
• Guarantee you'll know about every leak
• Remove your data from criminal hands

Even law enforcement operations—like the 2023 Genesis Market takedown or later Canadian crackdowns on dark web drug networks—don't magically erase everything.

So if a vendor promises "complete protection from dark web threats," take that with a big grain of salt.

When Dark Web Monitoring Is Worth It

For a small or mid-sized business between Hamilton and Oakville, I'd consider it worthwhile if:

• You rely heavily on cloud apps with password-based logins
• Staff reuse work passwords on personal sites (they do, even if they say they don't)
• You handle sensitive or regulated data
• You're trying to show insurers or clients that you take credential theft seriously

It's especially useful when combined with:

• Multi-factor authentication (so stolen passwords alone aren't enough)
• Strong password policies / password manager
• Basic monitoring for suspicious logins

What a Sane Setup Looks Like

Here's how I'd set this up for a 20-person firm in Burlington:

Scope what you monitor

• All @company.ca addresses
• Generic accounts (info@, billing@, etc.)
• High-risk roles (owners, finance, IT, anyone with admin rights)

Decide who receives alerts

• Someone who will actually act on them (internal IT or your MSP)
• Don't send raw alerts to the whole company

Define your response playbook

When an alert comes in for a specific user:

• Reset their password
• Invalidate sessions (e.g., sign out of all devices)
• Confirm MFA is on
• Ask if they reused that password anywhere else and help fix those accounts

If it's a bigger dump (e.g., many users):

• Consider a forced password reset for the entire domain
• Increase monitoring on VPN and email logins for a while

Log it

Keep basic records of:

• When alerts came in
• What actions you took

This helps with audits and cyber insurance conversations later.

How Much Should You Spend?

You'll see options like:

• "Free" dark web scans used as sales hooks
• Low-cost add-ons in security bundles from MSPs
• Enterprise-grade platforms (overkill for most SMBs)

For Golden Horseshoe SMBs, I'd treat dark web monitoring as:

• A nice add-on to a solid security foundation, not the core
• Something that should be bundled with other useful services (DNS filtering, email security, etc.), not sold as a miracle product

If your basic controls are weak—no MFA, poor backups, no training—fix those first. Government and industry guidance are crystal clear that those basics deliver far more value than any one fancy add-on.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed by "Your Data Is on the Dark Web" Pitches

If you get an email saying, "We found your passwords on the dark web," ask:

• What exactly did you find?
• Where did it come from? (An old breach? Which one?)
• Can you prove it without sending me other people's passwords?
• What are you proposing we actually do about it?

Serious vendors and MSPs will:

• Be specific about the type of data exposed
• Focus on practical next steps
• Put dark web monitoring in context, not treat it like magic

Bottom line: dark web monitoring is like having someone checking the shady back alley while you're running the front of the shop. Helpful, but only if the doors, locks, and alarms inside the building are already in decent shape.