| In the wake of a recent data leak and denial by authorities of such concerns, let us peer into the RM76 million-worth dark web market for Malaysian items and personal ID. According to data analysed by NordVPN, Malaysian items sold vary from RM40.86 to RM85.36 on average, with payment card data being the most expensive which sold for RM85.36 which is also above the world’s average – around RM43.93. However, Malaysian personal email data – is among the cheapest in the world selling on average RM43.89 per batch. Other Malaysian documents found on the Dark Web are also considered to be cheap, on average, Malaysian ID data costs RM43.89 MYR, and passports, are the cheapest at RM40.86. A new study by cybersecurity company NordVPN has analysed one of the dark web markets and found more than 720, 000 items have been sold illegally till to date. Among the items found globally were passports, personal IDs, driving licenses, email, payment card data, mobile phone numbers, online accounts, bank account logins, and crypto accounts as well as other personal data. “This one market is just the tip of an iceberg. There are over 30K websites on the dark web at the moment. Keep in mind that only 4% of the entire internet belongs to the surface web that is available to any user online,” says Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN. The most expensive merchandise overall was passports, with an average price of RM2635.98 per document. Czech, Slovakian or Lithuanian passports were the costliest (avg. price RM16694.54), and Malaysian passports only cost RM40.86. The price depends on many factors, including how difficult it is to fake a document, how widely it is sold, and how commonly it is bought. In other countries, data that could be brute-forced or guessed is sold at much lower prices. That cannot be said about Malaysia – their payment card data is the most expensive among found items, on average costing RM85.36. Another easy way for hackers to steal a user’s data or digital assets is credential stuffing (when the leaked password or email is used to get access to other platforms). That is why online accounts come at a low price as well: a hacked Netflix account can be bought for RM43.93, an Uber account for RM52.72, and a Twitter account for as little as RM8.79. Other Malaysian documents found on the Dark Web are also considered to be cheap. On average, Malaysian ID data costs RM43.89, with the top countries being Czechia (RM5024.75), Australia (RM1493.72), and France (RM950.45). Crypto wallets and investment accounts cost more than payment processing accounts and even more than some bank accounts. With an average price of RM1735.35, the most expensive crypto account data is from Binance, followed by Kraken (RM1687.03) and Crypto.com (RM1537.65). Payment processing accounts (e.g., PayPal) have an average price of RM439.33. The most expensive merchandise in this category is the CashApp account, costing around RM1071.97. Some criminals also buy emails in batches and use them for phishing attacks or other malicious purposes. On average, the batch of Malaysian personal emails costs RM43.89. |
