Your private information is probably being sold on the dark web

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Your private information is probably being sold on the dark web. How can criminals use it?​

Late last year, a well-known ride share app and a gaming company were hacked using well-crafted social engineering attacks. Many organizations think they’re safe from attacks by employing top-of-the-line security practices, tools and systems. Those will help deter many types of attacks, but social engineering is a stealthy method savvy threat actors can use to circumvent those measures.

And they obviously do it successfully.

 
Number Six: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Number Six: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information… information… information.
Number Six: You won't get it.
Number Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
 
It's already happened, and long ago. I was a victim of Identity Theft, and my IDs were used to buy cellular phones in Florida. Back before they became a commodity...it was a regional company (remember THOSE?) and several thousands of dollars run up in unpaid bills.

Since then I've had my credit on lockdown. I've never put any of my ID on a smartphone. I never bought anything on a smartphone or using a public-access computer.

And I use a separate browser when handling ID functions or money. Never for anything else...so, with the browser not running, there's little way thieves can go in and steal.

That, and that I use Linux...
 
For as little as $0.12 per record, data brokers in the US are selling sensitive private data about active-duty military members and veterans, including their names, home addresses, geolocation, net worth, and religion, and information about their children and health conditions.

In a unsettling study published on Monday, researchers from Duke University approached 12 data brokers in the US and asked what would be necessary to buy this kind of information; they ultimately purchased thousands of records about American service members, finding that many brokers offered to sell the data with minimal vetting and were willing to deal with buyers using email domains based in both the US and Asia.

 
It's already happened, and long ago. I was a victim of Identity Theft, and my IDs were used to buy cellular phones in Florida. Back before they became a commodity...it was a regional company (remember THOSE?) and several thousands of dollars run up in unpaid bills.

Since then I've had my credit on lockdown. I've never put any of my ID on a smartphone. I never bought anything on a smartphone or using a public-access computer.

And I use a separate browser when handling ID functions or money. Never for anything else...so, with the browser not running, there's little way thieves can go in and steal.

That, and that I use Linux...
Exact same thing happened to me. My credit is still locked down and have no banking apps on my phone.
 

US and Europe try to tame surveillance capitalism​

The US Federal Trade Commission on Monday warned that data brokers need to rethink how they define sensitive data in light of recent enforcement actions involving antivirus vendor Avast, and location data providers X-Mode and InMarket. Europe too is moving in this area and crackdowns move around the world.

The US trade watchdog has decided that browsing and location data should be considered sensitive, and that – despite the absence of allegations about personally identifiable information (PII) within the datasets of the above businesses – what makes this stuff sensitive is what can be inferred from it.

"Years of research shows that datasets often contain sensitive and personally identifiable information even when they do not contain any traditional standalone elements of PII, and re-identification gets easier every day – especially for datasets with the precision of those at issue in the FTC's proposed complaints against Avast, X-Mode, and InMarket," the commission declared.

Two weeks ago, the agency resolved its complaint against security vendor Avast for $16.5 million based on allegations that the firm used a "a unique and persistent device identifier" with its Jumpshot analytics business to track internet users' activities – including "each webpage visited, precise timestamp, the type of device and browser, and the city, state, and country."

Despite the crackdown, data brokers continue to sell advertising data that threatens people's privacy.

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