ID Agent's Dark Web Scanning Is ‘An Incredible Differentiator’ For MSPs

Do people often reuse passwords or follow the same pattern when it comes to creating passwords? The answer is a resounding yes, and that is changing how hackers are getting their foot in the door, according to Matt Solomon, vice president of business development for ID Agent.

To solve the problem, ID Agent created a Software-as-a-Service alerting platform, Dark Web ID, that monitors the dark web for MSPs. ID Agent, a 100 percent channel-focused dark web monitoring company, wants to help MSP partners earn more recurring revenue by adding dark web monitoring to their security stacks, Solomon said at The Channel Company’s NexGen Conference.

"Dark web scanning was not something people were talking about three years ago," he said. "It's an incredible differentiator."

[Related: ADT Cyber Security Breaking Down Barriers To Detection And Response For MSPs]

Because security is a living and breathing space, MSPs should constantly be evaluating new offerings to add to their repertoires to help customers cover their bases, Solomon said.

EnCompass, a cloud MSP that partners with ID Agent today, sees its customers on the dark web all the time, said Scott Crosby, general manager for EnCompass.

"We often see user names and passwords on the dark web when we do our scans—it's out there, and it's real."

EnCompass serves small and midsize businesses and offers about 10 security solutions today, dark web scanning included. Many customers aren't aware that dark web scanning is available, so it’s the job of the MSPr to keep various security issues top of mind for customers, Crosby said.

"You just have to educate [customers] on the entire security bundle, and the risks of not having or using these solutions, and they have to make that decision."

Dark Web ID is a multitenant, brandable, white-label offering that shows MSPs all the customers they are monitoring.

The offering pulls in emails, passwords and personally identifiable information that may have landed on the dark web. It can indicate which category of information, such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth, were exposed.

Dark Web ID also lets businesses monitor up to five personal email addresses —mostly for C-level executives—that means an extra level of protection for them and more "stickiness" for the MSP, Solomon said.

Perhaps most impressive is ID Agent's live prospecting tool, which can help MSPs capture customers on the spot. The tool can pull up the most recent emails and passwords exposed on the dark web by showing only a couple of characters.

"Even if it's four characters—believe me, it's enough to show them that it's an actual password they have used," Solomon said.