Weeks after weeks, news of online banking frauds, cyber-attacks and data thefts are flooding in the media. And after the recent news about Facebook data leak, every common man in India learnt about the term ‘data breach’. As you know, your personal data is used by thieves to make money or to compromise your identity. But not every thief is interested to use your stolen information by himself. Then where does your stolen data go?

Before you know that, you should be aware of the three core parts of the internet. Internet is mainly divided into three parts, known as surface web, deep web and dark web.

Surface web is like the tip of an iceberg in the ocean. Surface web is anything that a search engine can access. Or everything that is available on search engines. That means, the websites you access for shopping or the web pages you go through to collect information for your child’s school project, using search engines like Google is just a surface of the entire web. Surface web is accessible to anyone and everyone.

Next is deep web, a layer below surface web. Deep web contains data which cannot be explored by search engines. Way in for the deep web data is possible only by using access credentials like login id, password or username. For example, cloud storage. What you store on the cloud is deep web. Web page which cannot be accessed without login credential, is deep web. Deep web mostly holds the social media profiles, details of an individual’s bank accounts, emails, subscription sites, etc. In a nut shell, password protected sites are part of the deep web.

Then there is dark web. It is that corner of the internet which lies at the gloomiest point. Dark web is a segment of the deep web and a huge part of the internet. Dark web includes websites which are visible to general public but their internet protocol (IP) addresses are deliberately hidden from commercial search engines. Dark web is accessible only by using special browsers like Tor (The Onion Router) browser. Dark web is a collection of illegal information, services and products.

So, where does your stolen information go?

Thieves, who do not intend to use your information by themselves, often put your data up on the different web pages on the dark web for sale! Dark web is a black market for selling credit card numbers, fake passports and IDs, hacked account information, illicit drugs etc. Most recent data has the highest price in the black market of cyber criminals. Fresh data is considered to be the most expensive and hence it is auctioned and sold for the highest bid by hackers. Data on the dark web is valued on the basis of the scarcity of its nature and the newness.

Once your data is sold, it can be used anywhere and for any purpose. Among all types of information, medical information is what catches the attention of criminals the most. Your stolen medical information like your name, date of birth, health records or policy number can be misused to create fake identity and thereby to obtain fraudulent medical claims or to get access to health care services.

Your personal information is lucrative for hackers and cyber criminals. But do you know how do they actually buy and sell your valuable data?

There’s a process for buying and selling of identities in the black market. The entire process of buying and selling of identity is based on the point of buying. Buyer needs to specify the point of buying. For example, a buyer intends to make fraudulent purchases using credit card numbers. Once the buyer is clear on his point of purchase, he then looks for a vendor or the right dark web platform for buying credit card numbers. A criterion for buying and selling of identity is further interesting.
There are three ways by which data can be bought and sold on the dark web,

• Sole data, where single piece of data is bought and sold, for example, PAN number.
• Bulk data, where bunch of similar nature of data is bought and sold.
• Package of data is a set of variety of information bundled together. Bundled data is most expensive yet popular amongst fraudsters as it gives them multiple choices to use variety of data for unethical purpose.

The whole transaction is mostly done in crypto currency.

How cost of your valuable data is estimated in the black market?

Value of your personal data is fixed on the basis of certain factors, such as,

Nature of the data and demand for it. Availability of certain type of data and demand for it, decides its cost. Minimum scarcity and maximum demand, increases its cost in the market.

Supply of data. Lower the data supply, higher the price. This standard law of economics, applies dark web markets too.
Ability to reuse data. If certain type of information can be used multiple times for variety of purposes then it has the highest price in the dark web market.

Internet is like a three layered rabbit hole and hackers are as smart as those rabbits. However, you may try to prevent your identity being compromised, criminals will always find a way to steal your identity and will disappear in their deep hole of dark web before you could even realize…