Dark Web Monitoring & Data Leak OSINT

Stolen passwords, session cookies and internal files are traded long before most breaches are noticed. Our dark web monitoring watches the places they are sold and tells you, with evidence, what concerns you and what to do next.

Check our exposure Pricing benchmarks

Credentials, stealer logs and leaked files
Criminal forums, markets and channels
Ransomware leak sites
Analyst-verified alerts, not raw feeds

Short answer

Dark web monitoring is the ongoing search of criminal forums, markets, ransomware leak sites, paste sites and messaging channels for data that belongs to you: employee credentials, customer records, internal documents, or plans to attack your organization. Data leak OSINT is the investigation that follows a hit: what leaked, from where, how bad it is and who is behind it. OSINT-S does both, and an analyst verifies every alert before it reaches you.

Why Monitor the Dark Web?

Because stolen credentials are one of the commonest ways into a company, and the evidence usually appears for sale before the attack.

The average data breach cost $4.99 million worldwide in IBM's 2026 study, a record high (IBM, July 2026).
Credential abuse played a role in 39% of breaches across all stages of an attack, third parties were involved in 48%, and ransomware was present in 48% (Verizon DBIR 2026).
SpyCloud recaptured 13.2 million infostealer logs and 8.6 billion stolen session cookies, which can bypass multi-factor authentication (SpyCloud 2026).
Flashpoint counted 3.3 billion compromised credentials and cloud tokens harvested by infostealers in 2025 (Flashpoint 2026).
Ransomware groups posted 7,515 victims on leak sites in 2025, up 58% (GuidePoint GRIT 2026).

Europol describes data as "a commodity for crime" and notes that end-to-end encrypted apps are increasingly used to sell breached data (IOCTA 2025). Kaspersky's analysis of more than 800 blocked cybercriminal Telegram channels shows the low-value trade in leaked data and phishing kits moving between channels and platforms (Kaspersky, December 2025).

What Our Dark Web Monitoring Covers

Six areas, matching Molfar's cyber threat intelligence practice: your organization, your people, your credentials, your brand, your suppliers and the vulnerabilities being exploited.

Mentions of your organization

Your company, domains, brands, offices and key assets named on forums, markets, leak sites and channels.

Credentials and stealer logs

Employee and admin logins, session cookies and API keys from breach compilations and infostealer logs.

Leaked documents and databases

Customer records, internal files and source code offered for sale or published by ransomware groups.

Phishing and impersonation

Look-alike domains, fake pages and accounts that impersonate your company or executives.

Supply-chain exposure

Breaches and leaks at suppliers and partners that put your data or access at risk.

Threat actors and exploited vulnerabilities

Groups discussing your sector or technology, and vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild.

Scope areas as published for Molfar's cyber threat intelligence services.

Where Do We Look?

Wherever stolen data is advertised, traded or published: dark web forums and markets, ransomware leak sites, paste sites, messaging channels and breach compilations.

Source	What turns up there
Criminal forums and markets	Access to company networks, databases, credentials, fraud tools
Ransomware leak sites	Victim announcements and stolen files published to pressure payment
Messaging channels	Low-value leaked data, phishing kits, combo lists, doxxing
Stealer-log markets and clouds	Credentials, cookies and system data from infected computers
Paste and file-sharing sites	Dumps of credentials, configuration files and documents
Breach compilations	Historical leaks that reveal reused passwords and linked identities

How Dark Web Monitoring Works

We agree what to watch, collect continuously, verify each hit, and send you an alert that explains the risk and the next step.

Agree the watchlistDomains, brands, executives, IP ranges, products and suppliers that matter to you, plus the scope of personal data we may process.
CollectAutomated collection across forums, markets, leak sites and channels, combined with analyst research where automation cannot reach.
VerifyAn analyst checks each hit: is the data real, is it yours, is it new or recycled from an old breach?
AlertYou receive a short alert with what was found, where, when, how severe it is and what to do, for example resetting a credential or revoking a session.
Investigate when neededFor serious hits we trace the source: which system or supplier leaked, which actor is selling, and what else they hold.
Report and reviewA regular summary shows trends, closed issues and changes to the watchlist.

One-Off Leak Investigation or Ongoing Monitoring?

Start with a one-off exposure check if you have never looked. Move to monitoring if the check finds active exposure or you hold sensitive data.

	Exposure check (one-off)	Ongoing monitoring
Question	What about us is already out there?	Tell us when something new appears
Output	Report of current exposure with priorities	Verified alerts plus periodic summaries
When	Before a deal, after an incident, or as a baseline	Continuous, for organizations with valuable data or access

Dark web monitoring is one of our OSINT services for business and is often combined with an exposure check before a deal or after an incident.

A leak can also be the start of a wider case. If you need to know who is behind it, see OSINT threat intelligence or OSINT investigations.

Rules We Follow on the Dark Web

We observe and document; we do not buy stolen data to identify people, hack back, or log in with stolen credentials.

We do not log in to your or anyone else's accounts with leaked credentials to "test" them.
We do not hack back or attack criminal infrastructure.
We do not buy stolen data to identify individuals.
Personal data we find is minimized, stored securely and shared only with the people who need it to act.

Leaked data is still personal data: data protection authorities have reminded businesses that publicly accessible personal information remains protected (joint statement, 2023). Our monitoring scopes record the purpose and what we are allowed to process.

Dark Web Monitoring Tools vs an Analyst-Led Service

Tools are cheaper and faster at scale; an analyst-led service is better at telling real, relevant hits from noise and at investigating what they mean.

Option	Typical price	Good for
Have I Been Pwned domain monitoring	$52.68–$55,188 a year (HIBP)	Known breaches affecting your email domain
Self-serve keyword monitoring	$49–$199 a month (DarkWebSonar)	Small teams watching a few keywords
Dark web monitoring platform	$4,550–$9,100 a year (SOCRadar)	Security teams that triage alerts themselves
Identity exposure platform	$35,000 a year (SpyCloud on AWS)	Large organizations remediating credentials at scale
OSINT-S analyst-led service	Quoted on scope	Verified, prioritized alerts and investigation of serious hits

Prices checked 6 October 2026. Consumer identity monitoring, such as Aura from $12 a month (Aura), protects individuals, not company systems.

Who Does the Work?

Molfar's cyber team, led by Global Head of Cyber Maksym Zrazhevskyi, part of a company of 100+ people.

Dark web work is part of Molfar's risk management practice, alongside cyber security assessments that look at your attack surface, leaked credentials and controlled social-engineering testing (risk and security). Our work complements your security operations; it does not replace your internal security ownership or a managed security provider.

Find Out What Is Already Out There

Start with a one-off exposure check on your domains, brands and key people. We will tell you what we find and whether ongoing monitoring is worth it.

Request an exposure check Threat intelligence

Dark Web Monitoring FAQ

What is dark web monitoring?

Dark web monitoring is the continuous search of criminal forums, markets, leak sites and channels for data or discussion that concerns your organization, such as leaked credentials, stolen files or plans to attack you.

What is dark web OSINT?

Dark web OSINT is open-source intelligence work in criminal online spaces: finding, verifying and documenting what is offered or discussed there, without breaking the law or engaging in the crime.

Can you remove our data from the dark web?

Usually not. Once data is traded it is copied. What you can do is make it useless, by resetting credentials, revoking sessions and keys and warning affected people, and sometimes request takedowns from mainstream hosts.

Is dark web monitoring legal?

Yes, when it is done to protect your organization and the people in the data, with proportionate handling of personal data. We do not buy stolen data to identify people or use leaked credentials.

Do you monitor Telegram and other messaging apps?

Yes, where relevant channels and groups trade leaked data, phishing kits or access. Criminal activity moves between channels and platforms, so coverage is reviewed regularly.

What are stealer logs?

Stealer logs are bundles of data taken from computers infected with infostealer malware: saved passwords, session cookies, browser data and system details. Stolen cookies can let attackers bypass multi-factor authentication.

How quickly will we be alerted?

Collection is continuous, and an analyst verifies hits before alerting you. Urgent, verified findings are escalated as soon as they are confirmed; routine items go into regular summaries.

How much does dark web monitoring cost?

Self-serve tools start below $100 a month and enterprise platforms run to tens of thousands of dollars a year. Our analyst-led monitoring is quoted on scope; see our pricing guide.

What is the difference between dark web monitoring and threat intelligence?

Dark web monitoring looks for your data and your name. Threat intelligence looks at the actors, campaigns and vulnerabilities that could target you, whether or not your data has leaked yet.

Sources and Notes

Sources checked 6 October 2026. OSINT-S is operated by Molfar Intelligence, a trading name of Molfar Limited (Companies House 13558891). Figures from Molfar are company statements, not independently audited.