Data breaches are way more common than you think, and millions, if not billions, of people have had their info leaked on the dark web because of them. Chances are, your info is out there, too. But don’t fret; there is something you can do to counter this problem.
How Criminals Gather Your Data and What They Use it For
Data breaches happena lot.Many people have received notifications from organizations abouttheir data being imperiled during a data breach. Some individuals have had this happen multiple times. And even if you’ve never received such a notification, that doesn’t mean you haven’t met the same fate; it just means you weren’t personally informed about it. Even if you do everything right when it comes to online security and safety, you may’t control if your data is leaked in a breach.
Of course, criminals can also get your data through other means, likephishing and malware. Regardless of how your data is compromised, if it is, it almost certainly ends up on the dark web at the mercy of scammers, hackers, and other people with ill intent who buy it from brokers. But what do they do with this data of yours?
Unfortunately, artificial intelligence has made it much easier for criminals to use your data to nefarious ends, whether it’s identity theft, account locks and ransoms, or other types of scams. A few years ago, criminals had pretty generic tactics, but AI has changed that for them. They can use AI bots to gather up all of your personal data from a breach, including birthdays, your social security number, your name and address, banking credentials, or medical records.
This amount of highly personalized info allows scammers to target you with very specific bait, oftentimes pretending to be a family member, friend, or other acquaintance to try and trap you in a financial baiting situation. The more info they have about you, the more believable their scam can become. The good news is that most scammers don’t do extremely specific scam targeting, because it’s easier for them to target people en masse. But the possibility still exists.
It’s pretty bad if your data is on the dark web, but there are some things you can do to try and fix it.
Use a Dark Web Scanner to Find Out What Info Has Been Leaked
The first step to taking back your data is finding out what data is on thedeep or dark webin the first place. The best way to do this is to use a dark web scanner tool offered by a data removal service ora password manager programwith a similar feature. A dark web scanner will usually scan the dark web for mentions of your name, email address, or any passwords that you’re currently using. Below are a couple of programs that offer such a service:
With the help of a dark web scanner, you can figure out how much of your information is on the dark web right now. Unfortunately, even once you know that, it’s a completely different matter to actually get your information off of the dark web.
Employ a Data Removal Service
There are special data removal services out there who make it their mission to trawl the dark web, find your personal information, and remove it. Of course, these services aren’t free, but they’re doing something very valuable for you, so that makes sense. It’s actually possible to try and neutralize all of your data from the dark web manually, but it’s extremely difficult, even for experts. Most of us laypeople would never be capable of it.
Unfortunately, the dark web is both decentralized and anonymous in nature, which makes it very difficult to hunt down your info and get it away from those with ill intent. That’s why it is much easier to leave it in the hands of a data removal service that specializes in that type of work. Be aware that some data removal services only remove your info from the regular web and data brokers you may find there. You may need a specialized service for the dark web.
It’s also worth nothing that using a data removal service isn’t a guarantee. Trust me, almost all of them will claim that they are 100% guaranteed to get every single bit of your data off the web. But there is no way they can guarantee that. The dark web is convoluted, difficult to penetrate, and always finding new ways to be a problem. If you find that your data has been compromised in some way,it’s still worth it to use a data removal service; just know that it’s not a perfect catch-all.
As far as your information on the regular web goes, most of it ends up in the hands of data brokers. Your data gets sold by companies, legally, all the time. If you want to stop that data from being in the hands of data brokers, you can actually just submit formal requests for the data to be removed, and the brokers may have to legally comply, depending on the laws where you live. A data removal service could do this for you, but you can also do it yourself for free.
All in all, a data removal service can do a lot of work for you if you use a reputable one. But they don’t necessarily have to be transparent about how they do their job, so you can never be sure how completely they get it done. This is the downside of a data removal service. Ideally, you’d just keep your data from getting into the hands of the bad guys in the first place. But how do you do that?
Protect Your Data With the Right Software and Security Practices
The first thing to understand about the dangers of the internet is the fact that any data you put out there is at risk, whether it’s your name in a social media profile, a picture of you and your family, information you input for a website profile, or anything else. Being aware of that, your number one goal should be tominimize how much data you put online. Use fake birthdates when you’re allowed to. Be wary of what you put out there, because data brokers will gather and sell it if they can.
The less info you put online, the less data the bad guys can gather about you. And if they can gather more data about someone else that makes them a more attractive target, they’ll likely go after them instead of you. It’s bad enough that hackers want to get access to your online accounts, but you have to be protective of your hardware, too. The most valuable data you have is all on your computer, phone, and anything else that connects to your home network regularly.
The very first thing to do is keep your firewall or antivirus up at all times. I get it; sometimes these defenses flag something you know is harmless, and that can be annoying. Butdropping them even for a short whilecan open you up to attacks from cybercriminals, especially if you forget to turn it back on after you’re done doing whatever raised the false flag. If you are in a work environment with a system used by multiple people, be wary of certain individuals turning these things off without your knowledge.
Bitdefender Internet Security
Bitdefender Internet Security has some of the best malware detection and removal rates available, and also throws in a huge amount of extra security tools and features.
But keeping your firewalls and antivirus up is the obvious part. Even though they are effective cybercrime countermeasures, there’s a lot more you have to take into consideration.
Ultimately, prevention is the best cure to keeping your data safe. Taking these steps to protect your information greatly reduces the risk of it getting into the hands of scammers and hackers. If you do use a data removal service to clean up information you have on the dark web, you’ll want to try and reduce the risk of that happening again with these many practices and programs.
If you want to stay as safe as possible while carrying out your online activities, it’s important to do everything you can to keep yourself safe. Third-party antivirus software is a popular pick for many people, though its effectiveness can be overblown. That said, there are stillgood reasons to consider getting third-party antivirus in 2025, especially if you want to protect your data after you’ve tried to clear it from the dark web.
