July 10, 2020
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015 Billion Stolen Credentials Are Now Traded on The Dark Web
Photon Research Team, an international team of experts in cybersecurity, found out the number of stolen logins that ‘wander’ in the Dark Web — 15 billions.
For 1.5 years, the team has been auditing the Dark Web forums and trading platforms to come to a distressing conclusion — the number of stolen logins and passwords has increased three times for the last two years. It’s more than 100 thousand breaches and 15 billion stolen credentials from bank accounts, social media, file-sharing services, music, and video streaming accounts.
How much do people pay for the stolen data?
- The standard account data will cost you around $15,43.
- For active bank accounts credentials: $70, 91 on average. However, if there is a considerable amount of money in the account, the price may reach $500, especially if the credentials are fresh.
- For security web services including anti-viruses: $21,67.
- For user accounts of entertainment purposes such as social media, pornography websites, music streaming, and video streaming: $10.
- For admin access, users pay up to $120 000. And here, we talk about classic websites administration and access to data of big companies, corporations, and governmental structures.
There are the actual prices, according to Statista.com.
Why is it so easy for them to steal your data?
Unfortunately, cybercriminals are distinguished by the relative unselfishness — they share their methods of taking over on various forums and offer brute-force tools for a symbolic price of $4 on average.
Thus, even the most secure Two Factor Authentication (2FA) that is used, for instance, in online banking, can be bypassed easily if you find the right person on a cybercriminal forum and pay around $5000.
This way, even a slightly tech-savvy person can easily hack your account in a couple of minutes. But even if you are not such a person, you can count on account takeover services that are widely offered and advertised on the Dark Web.
Read more on the topic: Why Do Cyber Criminals Want to Get Into Your Inbox?
As it’s so easy for any evil people to hack and steal your data, it’s vital for organizations, companies, and individuals to know how to protect it.
How to protect yourself?
These are the general recommendations on saving your personal data:
1.Delete unused accounts
Old unused accounts can lead to current accounts, so it makes sense to reduce the number of accounts you use. At the same time, there will be fewer logins and passwords that you need to remember, and which you need to worry about.
2. Set up a password manager
It is better to shift the burden of remembering usernames and passwords to the reliable digital shoulders of special services of password managers that can not only manage all your credentials but also help to create various ultra-secure passwords for each individual case, protect against phishing and regularly conduct an audit of your security.
3. Protect your passwords from reset
The harder it is to reset the password, the better. If one of your email addresses is hacked, your social networks linked to this address will become the following. There is a way to stop this: for example, indicate in the settings of the desired service that you need to require additional information to reset the password (for example, confirmation by SMS), and make sure that the answers to the “secret questions” for resetting the password are difficult and not obvious for outsiders.
4. Remove suspicious third-party connections to your accounts
There is nothing wrong with allowing other apps and services to connect to your Facebook and Twitter. But keep these connections to a minimum and remove anything you don’t use to block any loopholes for hackers. It’s about services that ask you for full access to your account in return for the test “Who were you in a previous life” or something like that. Disable everything strange and unnecessary on the relevant Google, Twitter, and Facebook pages right now.
5. Change your passwords regularly
If you use a password manager, it will not be difficult for you to follow this advice — some applications can change passwords almost without your intervention. Be that as it may, you should regularly change your passwords. And if any of your passwords falls into hackers’ hands, you will not be worried about anything because you have already changed it.
6. Use a more secure way of communication and file-sharing
For sure, using Utopia instead of creating multiple accounts for different purposes will secure your personal data.
7. Stay on top of security news with Utopia.Fans
One of the easiest and most effective ways to keep your accounts safe is to stay informed and up to date.
