2018-10-7 10:05 |
The dark web is the hub of stolen information that usually includes social media accounts, credit cards and many others. After Facebook confirmed that multiple user accounts on its social network had been breached by hackers, batches of related credentials surfaced on the dark web. As expected, the sellers of this information are accepting (and actually prefer) payments made in Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash.
The Attack On Facebook AccountsRecently, Facebook affirmed that several user accounts on the social media platform were hacked. Apparently, over 50 million accounts were compromised during that attack. Now, as mentioned above, these accounts are on sale on the dark web. Although such data is often fabricated, The Independent newspaper believes that in this particular instance, real accounts are on sale.
Currently, the price range for stolen social media account is between $3 and $12. This implies that personal information is not highly regarded in the dark web. Moreover, these accounts are often sold in batches, meaning that even the criminals do not make much money out of these transactions.
The most popular way of paying to acquire such stolen data is through digital currency payments. Presently, a majority of these transactions involve either Bitcoin Core or Bitcoin Cash. This rather surprising, given that these two coins lack true anonymity in their transactions. Instead, one would expect the criminals to prefer a privacy-oriented virtual currency such as Monero.
Who Buys Stolen Personal Data?If a hacker manages to sell 50 million Facebook accounts at $3 each, they would rake in a whopping $150 million. The challenge, however, is finding a buyer for such a large number of accounts. Also, the Facebook team has a record of the compromised accounts and can suspend them if any suspicious activity is noted.
The possible deletion of accounts is not enough to restrict hackers from breaching social media platforms. This is because, besides the logins, these accounts usually contain additional information on the owner that can be used for other criminal activities.
In a recent report, Money Guru, a UK-based firm, elaborated the risks of having a social media account breached. The report stated that social media platforms are the ideal targets for criminals who want to steal personal data. Also, it revealed that the data is usually sold to private companies, and in some cases, governmental organizations.
Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024