A recent research report by Flashpoint revealed that the incident of data breaches had increased significantly in the past few years. This has impacted the price of stolen financial information and hacking tools on the dark web.
What is the reason behind the increased number of data breach events?
With an average of 20 data breaches each day, the first half of 2019 saw more than 3800 data breaches. It is estimated that more than 4.1 billion records were stolen in these attacks. The majority of these breaches were conducted using tools and information that can be accessed through the Dark web.
For example, BriansClub is one of the largest web marketplaces for trading stolen credit card data that was hacked. Over 26 million credit and debit card records were leaked. The most shocking fact is that about 7.6 million records of the data were uploaded between Jan to Aug 2019 alone.
Price of stolen data on the dark web:
The dark web is flooded with stolen data, and this has impacted the price of selling information on the dark web. FlashPoint’s released the price of such services:
- Fullz (Complete digital profiles, including financial information) – Data on an individual US resident cost between $4 to $10. Details such as social security number and DOB are used to carry out account fraud which cost just $5.
- Bank account credentials: This depends on the amount of money stored in the account. USA information is sold between $25 to $75.
- Exploit kit rentals: The kit is rent at $80 to $100 per day.
- DDoS-for-hire services: This service has increased the most, it cost $27 in 2017, shot up to $100 in 2019. This is due to greater security used nowadays.
Another research from Armor showed that the cost of credit card data increased to 33% to 83% from 2015. This range depends on where the data comes from which country. All of this points to a shaky future for the illicit trade of stolen data.
