Cyber security experts launch new business to help fight scourge of hacking

The Yorkshire team behind cyber security consultancy, Pentest People, has launched a new business that provides organisations with early warning of data breaches.

DarkInvader continuously trawls the dark web and hacker forums for caches of stolen data associated with a user’s organisation, so they can respond to incidents more quickly and prevent further damage.

It has been co-founded by serial entrepreneurs, Andrew Mason and Robin Hill, along with technical director, Gavin Watson and sales director, Anthony Harvey, who has already won a number of public sector contracts for the new company.

Under GDPR, organisations are legally bound to inform the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours of a data breach and alert affected customers.

However, stealthy hackers often lurk on networks for long periods, increasing their access privileges, while organisations are unaware their systems have been penetrated.

DarkInvader’s software automatically scans hundreds of thousands of illicit online marketplaces and millions of dark web pages to identify key pieces of information that indicate an organisation’s stores of payment card data, passport numbers, healthcare records and other sensitive personally identifiable data have been compromised.

To bolster the automated searches, the company’s cyber security researchers also manually monitor hacker forums for conversations indicating new exploits.

When a breach is confirmed, DarkInvader provides the affected organisation with a risk report on the severity, along with remediation advice to help the company identify and block the source of the leak.

Mason said: “Organisations often don’t realise they’ve been hacked until we tell them their data is being offered for sale on forums and secret websites that are not easily accessible to the general public.

“Our combination of technology and human research allows us to identify threats earlier than standard dark web automation tools.”

Watson added: “Even with robust cyber defences in place, a brand new web vulnerability, an unpatched server, or a misconfigured device can create a small chink in an organisation’s armour that gets exploited by determined hackers.

“Like a river pollution alarm alerting a factory that it’s leaking chemicals, if company records are found on the dark web this cannot be ignored.”

The firm is the third company co-founded by Harvey and Watson and the sixth business launched by Mason and Hill who employ more than 150 people in Leeds and Cheltenham.