Many antivirus companies, as well as credit agencies, are now offering what they call dark web scans, looking for anything that may have been stolen from you or used on the dark web. Many people think that this is mostly business data, but the downside is that it is also worse than it used to be. Your dark web scans will tell you if they find any of your personal information because they’re selling more than online accounts – even your social security numbers, credit cards, banking information, as well as usernames and passwords on critical websites (even government ones). We’re going to give you the skinny on what a dark web scan is and how they work.

I’ve Heard of the Dark Web – What Is It?

The dark web is a horrible place for the average user. You can’t access these searches through the most popular search engines, and they exist for hackers and cyber attackers to steal your personal and financial information. You won’t even know that you are hit by someone posting your information until you realize that you are a victim of identity theft. Even worse, in other countries, people are stealing social security numbers so they can steal your identity and gain employment. Even freelancers aren’t safe. Many websites that offer freelancers employment are even hit by people who are phishing information, and you don’t even know it – until they become completely non-responsive clients – but they’ve already stolen your information.

 

Change Your Passwords

This information cannot be taken lightly. If you’ve had any ransomware or malware data breach at your business, all of your passwords and your employees’ passwords need to be changed – NOW. This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s necessary to put an immediate stop to people accessing your accounts. Many people don’t even know that behind the scenes if an attacker has one email and password, they probably already have a slew of other ones – including personal accounts. You need to make sure everyone’s protected with a good password that isn’t easy for them to steal and one that’s unique – probably one you’ve never used before.

 

Get Ahold of Your Banks

It would be best if you let your financial providers know that hackers may have exposed your data, and you want to monitor your credit card statements and anything else. You should also get your credit reports and make sure that there isn’t any fraudulent activity. It would help if you also froze your credit to be safe – but you have to freeze it at all three credit bureaus.

 

How a Dark Web Scan Works

There is a lot of information that people find on the dark web and use. As we mentioned earlier, there are numerous items that many people are subject to identity theft from, and hackers and scammers don’t have to pay a lot for them. For example, your social security number on the dark web is often only worth about one dollar. That’s right—one dollar. The attacker may then use your identity to get hired somewhere, make purchases, get new credit cards, and much more. Dark web scans look for these items:

 

• Credit card or bank account numbers
• Logins, passwords, and email addresses for payment services
• Your driver’s license number or state identification number
• Medical record information
• Social security numbers
• Diplomas
• Phone numbers
• Logins for subscription services
• Passport information
• Office documents

 

Your customers’ information is also threatened with all of the above breaches as well.

 

Some cybersecurity sites like Avast offer free dark web scans for email addresses, while others offer paid services, such as Transunion or even AVG BreachGuard’s services. Oftentimes, these paid services provide access to monitoring, so you will be alerted if there’s any change and to monitor the known dark websites out there constantly. The downside? These may not provide immediate relief to those whose information is on new sites that keep popping up – but they are found as soon as the sites are discovered, which is frequent enough.