Your entire online identity could be worth less than €900 on dark web, new report reveals

We extended our analysis this year from three to five of the biggest black markets on the dark web, making this edition of the Price Index the most comprehensive yet. We found that while the value of your entire online identity remained around the $1200 mark, individual hacked accounts for brands with recent privacy or security woes have become significantly more appealing to fraudsters.

We also created a UK edition of the dark web market price index that found the value of a full online identity in the UK to be less than £800.

Also steadily increasing value to cybercriminals are accounts for online services which have become a part of everyday life in recent years, such as Netflix and Uber, which along with gaming phenomenon Fortnite all sell for around $11 each on the dark web.

See the full Price Index here.

With a horror year receding in the rearview mirror, hacked Facebook accounts have almost doubled in value since this time last year to just over $9 after falling out of favor following the data breach affecting 50 million accounts. Stolen Amazon credentials have also rocketed in value, worth over three times as much year-over-year at $30 to be the most valuable brand on the dark web.

It’s not surprising that stolen financial account details remain a mainstay on the dark web markets and typically command the highest prices – especially high-balance bank account and debit card details, which change hands for close to $260.

However, the trade in entertainment accounts with less immediately obvious value for identity thieves continues to flourish. Accounts for games and streaming services including Spotify, Tidal, Steam and Minecraft typically sell for less than $4, cheaper than a Big Mac.

The average person has dozens of accounts which form their online identity, all of which can be hacked and sold. Our team of security experts reviewed tens of thousands of listings across five of the most popular dark web markets – Dream, Wallstreet, Empire, Berlusconi and Tochka Free. These sites deliberately obscure themselves from the public and can only be accessed through the Tor browser. They are often used to buy and sell personal data, along with other contraband including weapons and illicit drugs.

We focused on listings featuring stolen ID, personal data and hacked accounts for this update to the Dark Web Market Price Index. We excluded massive data ‘dumps’ to avoid distorting average prices, as individual accounts in these dumps equate to tiny fractions of a cent each. Our analysis has shown that it would cost only $1250 to buy up someone’s entire identity, assuming that they had all the accounts listed.

Protect Your Data: Quick Tips
We created the Price Index to help the US public understand the value of their personal data and why it’s worth protecting. Here’s some tips on how to do that:

Get a good VPN – this will protect your personal data on public networks
Check if you’ve been hacked – Use Have I Been Pwned to see whether any of your accounts have been breached
Use a password manager – These are a cheap and effective way to make sure your accounts have unique (and therefore stronger) passwords
Delete your old accounts – these accounts are useless to you but a treasure trove to hackers

More details on how to protect yourself from scammers

The full price index is below.

Dark Web Market Price Index (February 2019 – US Edition)
Stolen ID, personal data and hacked accounts for sale

Item Category

Item for Sale
Avg. Sale Price
Personal Finance
Bank Details
$259.56

Debit Card
$250.05

PayPal
$42.38

Credit Card
$33.88

Western Union
$29.44

Moneygram
$21.59
Proof of Identity
Driving License
$27.62

Passport
$18.45

Proof of Identity
$16.52
Online Shopping
Amazon
$30.36

Best Buy
$26.54

eBay
$21.66

Nordstrom
$13.47

Macy’s
$13.20

Walmart
$13.19

Lowe’s
$12.24

Sephora
$8.55

Foot Locker
$8.42

GameStop
$7.68

GAP
$7.03

Groupon
$6.93

Costco
$6.50

Nike
$5.50

Wish
$5.20

Home Depot
$5.00

Craigslist
$4.66
Delivery
FedEx
$10.97

Postmates
$10.47
Travel
Uber
$11.22

Expedia
$10.00

Jetblue
$8.49

Airbnb
$7.61

Priceline
$4.04
Communication
T-Mobile
$16.00

Verizon
$11.81

AT&T
$7.81

Xfinity
$7.39

Google Voice
$4.00

Skype
$1.25
Social Media
Facebook
$9.12

Reddit
$6.21

Twitter
$2.02
Software
NordVPN
$8.84

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking