{"id":635585,"date":"2026-03-26T11:36:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=635585"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:38:36","slug":"google-begins-to-analyse-and-scrape-dark-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/635585-google-begins-to-analyse-and-scrape-dark-web.html","title":{"rendered":"Google begins to analyse and scrape dark web"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Google says it has started using AI agents to analyse and scrape the mostly unmapped dark web for cybersecurity threats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agents will automatically visit scores of deep web hacker forums and imageboards, gathering intelligence on ongoing threats and potential targets, then report back with their findings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dark web is the portion of the Internet that runs on encrypted servers and requires specialised software, such as the Tor Browser, to access. It is often frequented by criminal black markets and cybercriminals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Gemini, Google says it is now analysing millions of dark web events daily, highlighting only threats relevant to partners’ business operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo get teams the critical data they need to make quick, accurate decisions about rising threats, we\u2019re introducing a new dark web intelligence capability,\u201d it said in an announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new dark web intelligence capability is positioned to change how organizations gain insight into some of the hardest-to-track threats and threat actors in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies that make use of the new dark web intelligence capability will see Gemini build a specific company profile and then warn security teams of any potential threats based on this profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This profile dynamically evolves as companies use and integrate intelligence, making sure threat highlighting remains relevant to operations at any given time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google says that the benefit of using AI agents is that they are able to contextualise what they\u2019re analysing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConsider a scenario where an initial access broker posts on an underground forum that they\u2019re selling active VPN access to a major European retailer with $15 billion in annual revenue,\u201d it says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince many legacy tools depend on exact keyword matches for your brand name, and the broker has intentionally avoided naming the victim, security teams aren\u2019t alerted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark web intelligence would cross-reference the broker\u2019s post with a company\u2019s profile, matching revenue, geographic location, and specific portal types. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final product is a relevant and accurate warning sent to an organisation before an actor can even begin launching an attack or selling an attack vector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn previous roles, I\u2019ve leveraged several dark web tools and found they averaged over 90% false positives,\u201d said Michael Kosak, director of threat intelligence for password management firm LastPass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new dark web intelligence flips this, filtering noise and connecting dots that no human analyst could see in time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kosak says the difference in warning times is like being able to put out a house fire before the first match is struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Threat Intelligence told The Register<\/a> that Gemini AI agents were now crawling through “every single post” on the dark web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re seeing anywhere from eight to 10 million events a day, and we’re able to distill that down in very short throughput,” said Brandon Wood, Google Threat Intelligence product manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company claims its Threat Intelligence can analyse millions of daily external events with a 98% accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google has unleashed its AI agents into the dark web in order to spy on bad actors amid a new security strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":635588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[103990,102227,167,33897,92330,103989,89462],"class_list":["post-635585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-brandon-wood","tag-gemini-ai","tag-google","tag-google-cloud","tag-google-gemini","tag-google-threat-intelligence","tag-wiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635585"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635657,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635585\/revisions\/635657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}