The Darknet to the Rescue of Business Security

1. The Darknet to the Rescue of Business Security “Developed by the American army in the early 2000s, Tor allows you to browse the web anonymously and hosts a dark web accessible to its users only. »Update on its main uses and users of Darknet, and on the business benefits of Darknet. Jean -Philippe Rennard is professor of management and technology at Grenoble École de Management. “Tor is a mass tool that gathers more than two million users every day,” you mentioned in your last publication in The Conversation, in March 2016, on the use of the Darknet, which is essentially occult. To your knowledge, who are the main users of Darknet, and above all, what are the main uses of it today? The Darknet is an ecosystem of anonymous and confidential communications and publications, the users are all those who need to preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of their exchanges: Investigative journalists Activists Dissidents Underworld environments Today, only the most advanced companies in terms of exchange security use these tools; the great mass being only marginally aware of the risks incurred on a daily basis.

2. You point to "the absurdity of the attacks against Tor". What are the main reasons? The authorities are attacking Tor because it is a media target, but it is not by far the most suitable darknet for organizing terrorist operations, quite the contrary. There are more than 2 million Tor users every day, they are not 2 million terrorists or mafiosi, but first and foremost people who must protect themselves like journalists, lawyers, dissidents or homosexual communities in some countries. Attacking the Darknet is thus first of all attacking freedom of information. What are currently (and could be) the main uses of Darknet by businesses? The Snowden revelations made it clear that economic espionage is an integral part of major surveillance programs. Certain fields (energy, transport, biotechnologies, etc.) are explicitly targeted by the large intelligence services. The positions of the negotiators, or the contents of the contracts under discussion, are targeted in order to confer a strategic advantage to American companies in their own negotiations. The document from NSA France: Economic Developments published by WikiLeaks: "[...] mandates France's long-term economic espionage in order to obtain details on the economic activities of French companies and the economic policies and decisions of the French government."

3. It poses in particular the need to collect information on significant projects in the field of telecommunications, energy production or health and requests interceptions on all projects over 200 million USD. Beyond intelligence agencies, we know that some companies do not hesitate to call on organizations able to spy on their competitors. Then, the cyber-criminal groups are perpetually in search of information in order to carry out their various operations (racketeering, blackmail, etc.). In this context, it is important, in particular for technological and strategic companies, to ensure the confidentiality of their exchanges. Companies generally have only a very limited awareness of the risks they take in their electronic exchanges. They very often send emails and attachments in plain text. However, it is extremely easy for anyone with some technical means to access these exchanges. It would not occur to people to send their responses to a call for tenders on a postcard readable by all, yet this is what too many companies still do in their electronic exchanges.

4. Concretely, what are the resources / organizational means necessary for a small or a large company, which would make it possible to facilitate access to business on the Darknet? The Darknet is a protection tool, not a fluidizer. It is for companies to protect themselves from the espionage of mafia groups, intelligence agencies or competitors, who are much more present than they generally, think. All companies should use a GPG-type encryption system for their email exchanges, at least for the data that is most sensitive to them. The implementation is simple, even for small CIOs. Given the resources of large agencies, the use of anonymizing ecosystems can also provide a useful level of protection when negotiating very sensitive contracts. To conclude, what are the next challenges for a “legal” use of Darknet by companies? Businesses must learn to protect themselves. Data interceptions are ubiquitous. We know for example that software robots controlled by mafia groups constantly scan networks in search of faults. The tools for preserving the confidentiality of exchanges (encryption) must be systematically used tomorrow. The same goes for anonymization tools, at least in the most sensitive cases. The Dark Web offers powerful and open resources here.

5. All leaders must understand that the exchanges within their companies are potentially intercepted. They must act accordingly. The use of costing tools must therefore become widespread. It is now an essential tool for preserving competitiveness.