Personal data for sale for less than 50 cents on the dark web

Personal data can cost little, even less than 50 cents, personal data sometimes stolen, sometimes shared online in a reckless way, which can be purchased on the dark web, a corner of the net not accessible through normal search engines, and where it is taken mainly illegal activities.

To say this is a research by the security company Kaspersky, which analyzed the offers on ten international forums and darknet markets.

The rate includes 40 cents for the purchase of identification data such as name, social security number and date of birth, and 50 cents for the identity card, which however go up to 50 euros for a selfie with a document in hand.

The details of the credit card are priced between 5 and 16 euros, those of the Paypal account from 42 to 418 euros.

New in recent months are the data from medical records, ranging from 84 cents to 25 euros.

Data sold on the dark web can be exploited for extortion, scams, phishing schemes and direct money theft.

Some types of data, such as access to personal accounts or password databases, can be used not only for profit, but also for reputational and social damage, such as in the case of doxing.

It is a practice close to cyberbullying in which a user shares another person's private information without their consent, with the aim of embarrassing, hurting or endangering them.

"As several cases have shown, doxing can turn into something very dangerous," warns Kaspersky.

"For example, it is capable of allowing malicious users to hack the victim's account. This is a service that is offered on the dark web today."