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Just $1,010 will buy enough personal data to steal somebody’s identity, researchers have found.
Privacy website PrivacyAffairs.com scanned dark web marketplaces, forums and websites to create an index of the average prices for a range of specific products.
And while the ‘full set’ of data was valued at $1,010, the team found that online banking logins cost an average of just $40, with full credit card details including associated data costing between $14 and $30.
Interestingly, US credit cards are valued at significantly less – $17 on average – than those of other nations, thanks to the high supply. Israeli cards, by contrast, go for $65.
After buying the data, criminals can order forged documents to match, including high-quality driving licenses for $400 each. A European national ID card costs an average of $500, with a US passport costing $4,500.
“Despite the increasing supply, prices for cloned credit cards and associated cardholder data actually seemed to increase across the board,” says data privacy specialist Zachary Ignoffo.
“The price increase is most likely due to a combination of factors like the increasing risks of attaining the information, the increasing benefit for buyers to use the information, the increased quality/accuracy of the card data, or just good ol’ inflation.”
Prices for hacked social media accounts seem to be dropping across the board, with a hacked Facebook account now going for $75, compared with $65 last year. A hacked Gmail account has halved in value over the last year, dropping from $156 to just $80.
Meanwhile, says the team, dark web markets are overflowing with listings of hacked cryptocurrency trading accounts and wallets such as Coinbase, LocalBitcoins, Kraken, Cex and more. A US verified LocalBitcoins account costs $350, rising to $610 for Coinbase and $810 for a Kraken account.
Sellers are taking tips from other online vendors, with some even offering ‘buy one, get one free’ deals. They’re also becoming more security-conscious themselves, increasingly insisting on Monero for payment and communicating only through PGP encryption.
And they’re broadening their range, now offering web services such as Uber or Ancestry.com accounts – worth $8 each – or eBay accounts, with those with good ratings selling for up to $1,00 each.
“Dark web market data may not provide the average person with useful insights, but what they do provide is a powerful perspective into just how valuable your personal data really is, and how cheap it is to exploit you,” says Ignoffo.
“The reality is that hackers rarely resort to targeting specific people. With the sheer quantity of data available for purchase, they just need to play the numbers game, and if you don’t protect yourself, you’ll be the one paying the price.”