The Dark Web is a place where all kinds of illegal things tend to be sold, from drugs to weapons to various other services that are both illegal as well as highly unethical. However, not all of the items that are bought and sold on the Dark Web are quite as dramatic, with some of them being little more than credit card details although they can be quite damaging to the people that they belong to.
Having your credit card information stolen can be harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up draining you of all of your finances. Hence, it makes sense that they would be a really popular kind of product on the Dark Web. A new report from Nord VPN in collaboration with cybersecurity researchers that were analyzing the databases in which these cards were kept shows just how serious the matter truly is, with one of the cybersecurity experts gaining access to a database of around 4.5 million credit cards.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the price at which a stolen credit card can be bought on the Dark Web is actually very low, with an average of about $10 being reported. The US alone has 1.6 million of its credit cards for sale on the Dark Web, with California, Texas and Florida being among the most commonly targeted states with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Nord also gave countries a threat index score from 0 to 1, and virtually every country in Europe along with some other nations such as Saudi Arabia and the US had their index reaching the dreaded 1 figure. That suggests that many people living in these countries might have already had their credit card information stolen without them realizing it. This is an issue that is getting worse by the day, and the cheap price at which these credit cards are sold indicates how easy they are to acquire.
Read next: Cybercriminals Impersonate LinkedIn More Than Any Other Brand, New Research Shows
Having your credit card information stolen can be harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up draining you of all of your finances. Hence, it makes sense that they would be a really popular kind of product on the Dark Web. A new report from Nord VPN in collaboration with cybersecurity researchers that were analyzing the databases in which these cards were kept shows just how serious the matter truly is, with one of the cybersecurity experts gaining access to a database of around 4.5 million credit cards.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the price at which a stolen credit card can be bought on the Dark Web is actually very low, with an average of about $10 being reported. The US alone has 1.6 million of its credit cards for sale on the Dark Web, with California, Texas and Florida being among the most commonly targeted states with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Nord also gave countries a threat index score from 0 to 1, and virtually every country in Europe along with some other nations such as Saudi Arabia and the US had their index reaching the dreaded 1 figure. That suggests that many people living in these countries might have already had their credit card information stolen without them realizing it. This is an issue that is getting worse by the day, and the cheap price at which these credit cards are sold indicates how easy they are to acquire.
Read next: Cybercriminals Impersonate LinkedIn More Than Any Other Brand, New Research Shows