Protect Your Data with Dark Web VPN

The dark web is known for a lot of criminal activity, but that’s not all it’s about. The dark web is a place where things take place anonymously.

Whistleblowers for instance pass on information via the dark web as they are sure their identities would remain protected. This is because access to the dark web requires added privacy support from visitors. So those who visit have to use services like Tor.

Dark web entities and websites are not indexed by common search engines because of their access requirements.

All of these layers of security and privacy are abused by criminals to steal and sell private data amongst other things. And so to ensure that your data is safe, you would need to use a dark web VPN.

What is Dark Web?

The dark web is made up of sites that can’t be accessed normally using a typical search engine. The websites on the dark web are encrypted so that their location can’t be accessed. The majority of the platforms on the dark web are into buying and selling stolen private data.

For example, when a data breach occurs, the stolen data would be available on the dark web and sold to the highest bidder.

With your data in the wrong hands, you could get into trouble. A criminal might use your credit card details to make purchases or take loans in your name. 

Note that there is a difference between the dark web and the deep web. Even though both are not accessible through regular search engines, they both include things that are very personal to you.

The deep web would however require you to enter the necessary credentials to get access to any platform you have authorization to.

Differences Between Dark Web and Deep Web

Use Cases of Dark Web and Deep Web

Dark Web VPN

A dark web VPN is a tool that provides you with protection when you visit the dark web. Since the dark web can be used for many purposes, you may become a victim of cybercrime if you visit unprepared.

Not every type of VPN is fit for use as a dark web VPN, and so you would need to make a careful choice. Paid VPNs offer you private IPs with better encryption and anonymity. This security is required on the dark web to ensure your safety online.

We highly recommend LimeVPN as the perfect choice for you. it provides you with great encryption, and security features to keep you safe even as you surf the dark web.

Dark Web Monitoring

Dark web monitoring is like a scan of the dark web continuously. It alerts you of any activity on the dark web that involves any of your personal information. Once your information is found on the dark web, the software notifies you.

Many companies invest in dark web monitoring to protect their customers’ and employee data. So if any compromised data shows up on the dark web, they get notified. Most of the software monitoring tools used are automated scanners and crawlers that locate stolen credentials on dark web sites.

It’s not very efficient as the data would have been available for a while in the hands of a criminal community before appearing on the dark web. And so the best way to prevent data breaches remains prevention. Using a strong password and changing it regularly helps with security. Transmission of data only via a secure connection is also another way to ensure that your data remains secure. Recognizing phishing attacks and avoiding them saves you from the trouble of getting your data off the dark web. 

How Dark Web Monitoring Works

Continuous Background Monitoring

Some dark web monitors scan the dark web continuously, searching for credentials that are associated with the data you provide.

Once anything is found, you get notified. Not all software scans continuously in the background, and so before you make any choice, check that it has the continuous scan feature.

Instant Notifications

The dark web monitoring apps don’t disturb your regular activity. They only scan dark websites in the background. You would only be aware of their activity if they pick anything as you would be instantly notified.

You will get details about the data leak including the service the data breach occurred in. you can then take immediate action like changing your password for that account to avoid further break-ins and leaks.

Types of Personal Data On the Dark Web

The following are types of data that are commonly stolen and sold on the dark web:

• Fake diplomas: The CEO of Sixgill, Avi Kasztan says, “Cyber criminals have created a digital marketplace where unscrupulous students can purchase or gain the information necessary to provide themselves with unfair and illegal academic credentials and advantages”
• Driver’s license: In 2016, a hacker by the name ‘NSA’ put up a dataset containing driver’s licenses of over 290,000 US citizens on the dark web for sale. Driver’s licenses on the dark web are worth only $20. 
• Credit card and debit card details: Cuble, a cybersecurity research firm discovered 80,000 credit card details for sale in exchange for cryptocurrency. The data up for sale included CVV, name of cardholder, expiration date, and billing address as well. 
• Login details for services: the login details of services and marketplaces are also in high demand on the dark web. Login details for Amazon accounts on average goes for $30.36. 
• Passports: as of February 2019, the cost of passports on the dark web was $18.45. 
• Social security numbers: these cost about $4 on the dark web and usually come with other data such as name, driver’s license number, passport number, and email as well. 
• Log in details for payment services like PayPal: such data is sold under the fraud category of the dark web market. 
• Medical records: in 2018, Protenus, the healthcare data protection company revealed 222 data breach incidents. The total number of patient records that were involved was more than 11 million and they included data such as social security number, date of birth, credit card details, and so on. The value of medical records on the dark web is about $1000.

How Your Information Can Get to The Dark Web

When you sign up for an online service, you provide your data on the platform. This data is protected until the day the platform or your account gets hacked into.

When this happens, chances are that your data would have been stolen. The majority of these breaches occur because there is a profitable market on the dark web for such personal data.

Once you realize your data has been leaked, you should take action to protect your account and contain the damage as much as possible. Also, use a dark web VPN when connecting to the internet or dark web to protect your connection and data.

You won’t always know when there is a breach, but it doesn’t mean that your data isn’t on the dark web. To be sure, use a dark web monitor to scan for your information on the dark web.

Dark Web Scan

A dark web scan goes through different websites, checking through stolen information for yours. Once your information is found, you get notified. From here, you can take the necessary steps to reduce the damage that the hacker intends to cause.

Complete reliance on dark web scans is a mistake as they can’t detect everything. The scan is only helpful when your data has been exposed so for those that aren’t exposed, nothing would be found.

If you have had the dark web scanned and your information detected, the following steps can be taken to reduce the potential damage:

• Change passwords
• Notify your financial service providers of the breach. You may need to close the account completely
• Request for credit card statements regularly and check for any purchase you didn’t make
• Also, monitor credit reports to check for any account that has been opened in your name
• You can also freeze your credit to avoid having bulk purchases in your name

Dark Web Monitoring Software

LastPass

Features 

• Easy integration with other platforms
• Heavy encryption with zero-knowledge security 

Price

Teams – $4 per user monthly

Enterprise – $6 per user monthly 

Identity – $8 per user monthly

Ontic

Features 

• Assessment of threat and vulnerability risk
• Seamless integration with security software and data providers 

Vigilante Operative

Features 

• Expose malicious campaigns
• Expose leaked or stolen data

Dark Web ID

Features

• Provision of threat intelligence to secure team 
• Monitors unindexed sites 

Webhose.io

Features

• Easy dark web data extraction 
• Cyber threat intelligence monitoring 

Massive Intelligence

Features

• Digital risk monitoring
• Data breach intelligence 

Matchlight Unstructured Data Pipe

Features

• Private data collection and monitoring 
• Ease of use

ACID Intelligence

Features

• Continuous monitoring of sources using client-defined keywords 
• Monitors an organization’s websites to detect defacement attacks as soon as it occurs

Recorded Future Security Intelligence Platform

Features

• Provides threat intelligence for informed security strategies and defenses against breaches
• Makes it easy to detect and take down leaked data, fake social media accounts, etc

DigitalStakeout Scout

Features

• Data leak detection 
• Dark web monitoring 

PhishLabs

Features

• Provides domain monitoring 
• Data leak detection 

ImmuniWeb Discovery

Features

• Provides instant alerts on vulnerabilities 
• Provides website security 

Pricing 

Corporate Pro – $995 monthly

Corporate – $499 monthly 

Express Pro – $199 monthly

IntSights Threat Intelligence Platform

Features

• Monitor threats and block them
• Phishing detection and protection 

Cyjax Threat Intelligence Services

Features

• Brand Protection
• Vulnerability and exposure monitoring 

LifeRaft Navigator Platform

Features

• Monitors deep web, dark web, and social media to identify leaked data
• Real time notifications

Dark-I Threat Intelligence Platform

Features

• Real time actionable alerts
• Automatically block malicious IOCs

DarkOwl Vision

Features

• Monitor for specific content on the dark web
• Calculate the risk percentage of an organization based on their dark net footprint 

Digital Shadows SearchLight

Features

• Threat intelligence 
• Dark web monitoring and data leakage detection 

Hashcast

Features

• The use of AI to monitor internet channels including the dark web in search of credentials from your domain 
• Real time notifications of any discoveries as they occur

LogmeOnce Enterprise

Features

• Proactively detects hackers
• Cloud storage encryption 

Pricing

Premium – free

Professional – $2.50 monthly

Ultimate – $3.25 monthly

Family – $4.99 monthly

Echosec Systems Platform

Features

• Monitors and identifies developing threats on the dark web
• Provides advanced filters features to monitor brand assets

Media Sonar

Features

• Detect threats immediately and reduce false positive result 
• Gives unlimited access to dark web sources

Pricing 

Essentials – $1,500 for 3 users per month. 

SpyCloud

Features

• Protect crypto wallets from breaches by checking for user credentials breaches
• Provides continuous monitoring 

ZeroFox

Features

• Provides actionable threat intelligence 
• Easily integrates notifications into platforms 

Argos Threat Intelligence Platform

Features

• Identify threats before they turn to breaches
• Offer phishing detection 

LimeVPN and Security

LimeVPN secures your data through its AES 256-bit encryption. Encryption scrambles data and allows only authorized parties to understand the data through their use of the encryption key. 

For the encryption to take place, LimeVPN establishes encrypted connections between devices using protocols such as SSL/TLS or IPSec.

Devices that connect to the VPN set up encryption keys which are used to encrypt and decrypt data transmitted between. By this even if a third party intercepts sent data, all they see is the scrambled version. 

Conclusion

Even though the dark web has its good sides such as protecting the identities of those with good information, illegal activities also take place there.

Chances are that your data can be found there was leaked from a data breach. You can therefore protect your data from being used for illegal or harmful purposes by always connecting to a dark web VPN.

LimeVPN offers you great security and encryption so that your connection remains secure and every data transmitted stays safe.

You may not be alerted of any data breach, but it doesn’t mean that your data isn’t on the dark web. So it’s safer if you carry out dark web scans to ensure your personal information isn’t being sold.