Dox, steal, reveal. Where does your personal data end up?

[harlan4096]

Contents

• Unwanted spotlight: doxing
  
• What is doxing?
  
• Why is doxing dangerous?
  
• Doxing scenarios
  
• Social impact
  
• The darknet database. How much do you cost?
  
• Methodology
  
• Research findings – how much do you cost?
  
• Key takeaways
  
• Protecting your data and yourself
  
• Know what they know
  
• Remove what you can
  
• Protect yourself
  
• When it is too late
  
• To sum up: take good care of yourself and your data
  

The technological shift that we have been experiencing for the last few decades is astounding, not least because of its social implications. Every year the online and offline spheres have become more and more connected and are now completely intertwined, leading to online actions having real consequences in the physical realm — both good and bad.

One of the most affected areas in this regard is communication and sharing of information, especially personal. Posting something on the internet is not like speaking to a select club of like-minded tech enthusiasts anymore — it is more akin to shouting on a crowded square. This gives rise to many unique threats, from cyberbullying and simple financial scams to spear phishing and social engineering attacks on business executives and government officials. And while awareness of privacy issues is increasing, much of the general public still only have a basic understanding of why privacy matters.

Unfortunately, even if we take good care of how and with whom we share our personal data, we are not immune from being doxed. The abusers may be motivated enough to go beyond gathering data available in the public domain and turn to the black market in the hope of finding personal information that will do real harm, for instance, gaining access to social media accounts. In this report, we will dig deeper into two major consequences of (willing and unwilling) sharing personal data in public — doxing (the public de-anonymization of a person online) and the selling of personal data on the dark web — and try to untangle the connection between the two. We’ll’ also look at how these phenomena affect our lives and what challenges these conditions present to users.

Key findings

• Doxing is not something that only vulnerable groups or people with specific professions, such as journalists or sex workers, can be affected by. Anyone who voices an opinion online may potentially become a victim of doxing.
  
• Almost any public data can be abused for the purpose of doxing or cyberbullying with an unlimited number of ways users can be harmed by their own data.
  
• With increasing digitization of most aspects of our everyday lives, even more data is now shared with organizations and may end up in the hands of criminals. This now includes personal medical records and selfies with personal identification documents.
  
• Access to personal data can start from as low as US$0.50 for an ID, depending on the depth and breadth of the data offered.
  
• Some personal information is as mch in demand as it was almost a decade ago – primarily credit card data and access to banking and e-payment services. The cost of this type of data has not fallen over time and that is unlikely to change.
  
• Data sold on dark market websites can be used for extortion, executing scams and phishing schemes and direct stealing of money. Certain types of data, such as access to personal accounts or password databases, can be abused not just for financial gain but also for reputational harm and other types of social damage including doxing.
  

...

Continue Reading