After Facebook disclosed last week that more than 50 million of its user accounts could have been compromised in the recent cyber attack which happens to be worst ever, a study carried out by a financial firm named Money Guru says that the logins of the social media giant’s users are available for just $2.73 cents on Dark Web.
Money Guru Researchers say that the credentials are being sold to companies which later want to target the users with related ads based upon the content of their interactions, shares, and likes.
Researchers who carried out their research on the most popular dark web marketplace called ‘Dream Market’ say that the email logins sell for as little as $2.70 each, whereas Facebook logins could be sold in a range of $2.75 to $8 depending upon the user and his/her profile status.
Some companies also pay $970 in exchange of bulk data that includes details such as usernames, passwords, and email addresses along with their contact numbers.
Wall St Market and Berlusconi Market are the two other names where logins of users of popular social media networking platforms can be found. On these platforms, it’s said that the logins for Reddit, Instagram and Pinterest can be found for as low as $1.80 and can go up to $8.73- all based on the popularity of the respective social media profile owner.
Twitter logins are available for $3.26 and Gmail passwords are available for $3.26 on dark web.
So, what should be done by those seeking privacy….?
The best way to counter this situation is to use two-factor authentications which allow a password to be sent by the service provider to your mobile for login.
Also, maintain dissimilar passwords for diverse accounts as it will help block hackers from accessing all accounts in one go.
Early this year, Facebook users concerned about data privacy suffered a jolt when the Cambridge Analytica data scandal came into light. Now, as the latest data breach reports hit media headlines, it might become tough for the Mark Zuckerberg led company to retain its platform users in coming days as most of them might opt for ‘Delete Facebook’ account option soon.
