Dark Web Threat Intel: Critical Pillar of Modern Cybersecurity

Lumma, a popular infostealer among cybercriminals, made headlines in spring 2025 after Microsoft and global law enforcement agencies successfully shuttered the command-and-control structure used to manage and operate Lumma.  That win, unfortunately, was short-lived. Infostealers like Lumma have quickly flooded dark web forums, social media groups and marketplaces, and commonly used public messaging platforms and paste sites, where they are readily available and increasingly easy to use. Today’s infostealers not only compromise massive amounts of data about users, their devices, and their browsing behaviors but also have become increasingly difficult to detect and take down. And the amount of data and information they steal will soon make passkeys and tokenization and even encryption (with the emergence of quantum computing linked to artificial intelligence) obsolete, putting cross-channel digital convenience at direct odds with cybersecurity. Dark web intel is playing an ever-increasing role in the takedown of threat actors connected to emerging infostealers. 

In 2023, a wide range of cross-sector businesses ranked dark web intelligence tools as their most effective fraud, identity, and authentication methods. Javelin’s upcoming cybersecurity scorecard, the 2025 Dark Web Threat Intel Vendor Scorecard, which publishes in November, evaluates leading dark web threat intelligence vendors on the market today. This report serves as a primer for that scorecard, setting the stage by offering an overview of the current threat landscape and the opportunities for cyber risk mitigation afforded through emerging threat intel concerning the dark web.

Key questions discussed in this Cybersecurity report: 

• How will emerging infostealers make tokens, passkeys, and encryption obsolete?
• What has convenience across digital channels cost financial institutions and consumers?
• Why is dark web threat intel no longer an option for effective cyberthreat risk mitigation and cyber resiliency?

Companies Mentioned:

Capital One, CreditWise, Lumma, Microsoft, RSA, SecurID, Verizon Business, Yubico, Yubikey