Is your name and personal data floating around the dark web? The answer is yes?
Next question; How did it get there? It was stolen during one of the many hundreds of data breaches that occur each year.
Google lights up the web
Now Google is bringing some light to the dark place where cyber criminals and other miscreants like to hang out. Google will soon be offering its dark web monitoring service free to Google account holders. And that is good news.
A year ago Google began monitoring the dark web for stolen account and personal information of Google One subscribers. The company was looking for data such as phone numbers and physical addresses. Google is now making its dark web reports available to anyone with a Google account.
Trying to understand or even access the dark web is a serious undertaking. To get there you need the TOR browser and you need to know what the URL address is to what you’re looking for. There are no links or search engines to help you. And keep in mind that this is a dangerous place to be. Be careful what you access.
This free service will be part of Google’s “results about you” page.” This is where Google users check for information Google has indexed that contains personal contact data like your home address, phone number, or email address and request it be removed so it won’t show up in search results. According to Google the move will create a “combined solution to help users protect their online presence.”
Google free service means hundreds of millions of Google account holders will receive an alert when their email address, date of birth, passwords and other sensitive data has been compromised as part of a data breach. And did I say there are hundreds of data breaches annually?
There are other services that you can use to monitor your data, both paid and free, such as Have I Been Pwned? For Google users the better deal is combining the company’s two monitoring features in a single place to view potential personal information leaks makes more sense.
Your data is everywhere
Data or information, often yours, is the currency of the digital age we live in. Apps, software, websites, your ISP and your cell phone provider are just a few of the internet services that collect everything they can about your online activity and your life in general. When this information is stolen it often ends up on criminal websites for sale. That’s whats happening on the dark web.
Your next question should be; What information about me is on the dark web?
To learn what information about you is circulating in the dark space of the internet you first need to create what Google calls a monitoring profile. This profile will include your name, date of birth and Gmail address. Google allows you to add additional information to your monitoring profile such as your postal address, additional email addresses and phone numbers. After completing your profile Google searches for matching data that has been published on the dark web as a consequence of data breaches.
You will receive an instant summary detailing how many data breaches your information has been found in and what information was leaked.
Your response
Now you want to know what can you do about it? Answer; not a helluva whole lot. There is so much information about you on the internet you’d be hard pressed to clean it all up. Your name, address, email and phone number is everywhere. So is your date of birth and even your social security number and banking information.
What you need to focus on is diligence. Be constantly aware of your data and who has it. Especially focus on your passwords since this is the tool that is most in demand. Use multi-factor authentication for all accounts involving money and sensitive personal data like medical information. Use complex passwords and change them at least every six months. Don’t share information with anyone you don’t know and stop over sharing on social media like Facebook and TikTok. This is a rich source of information for cyber crooks. Constant surveillance of your accounts and data is your only defense.
Now you know.