How much is your digital identity worth? Nord VPN's new tool reveals the true price of identity theft | Tech Radar

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How much is your digital identity worth? Nord VPN's new tool reveals the true price of identity theft

Americans’ personal data is the most sought-after in the world - and the cheapest to buy

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Nord VPN has released a new tool that calculates the price of your online data

It is based on research into 75,000 listings on dark web marketplaces

The research shows that currently, US data is the cheapest to buy

Nord VPN is inviting you to understand the price of your personal data online with a new tool based on extensive dark web research.

Tech Radar's best VPN analysed over 75,000 listings on dark web marketplaces and compiled a list of personal data commonly traded there. From bank accounts to Netflix subscriptions to credit card details, these data items were frequently sold on the dark web for as little as $5.

To illustrate the point, the VPN provider has turned its entire research into an interactive calculator that helps you find out how much your unique and sensitive data is actually worth if it falls into the wrong hands.

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Nord VPN’s calculator challenges users to find out their own digital value. By selecting their country and the types of data, the tool displays a figure corresponding to the price a cybercriminal would pay to purchase that data bundle on the dark web.

“Every online account you own has a price tag on the dark web,” warns Marijus Briedis, CTO at Nord VPN.

This is nothing new, perhaps: insurance companies have long been in the business of putting a monetary figure on a human life.

However, the dark web has gone a step further, enabling criminal market-dynamics to set the price of our digital assets at a shockingly low level - even just $1 for a personal email account if sold in bulk.

Nord VPN’s research shows that prices vary considerably from one country to another, depending on supply and demand dynamics.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans’ personal data is the most sought-after in the world. However, less obvious is that the abundance of security breaches there also makes it the cheapest to buy.

Stolen payment credit cards from North America are sold for as little as $10 and account for over 70% of all stolen card listings. However, in countries where stolen data is scarcer, such as Japan or Singapore, the same cards sell at a significant premium.

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The same logic applies to data packages - sets of information, including identification numbers and dates of birth, that are sufficient to steal someone’s identity. Where an American package sells for $35, a Japanese one is worth many times that amount.

The tool also shows how the effects of criminal theft can range from almost imperceptible to dramatic.

At one end of the spectrum, criminals can build continuous subscription-style businesses by stealing and reselling Netflix or Spotify accounts that cost as little as $4.55 and are often invisible to you.

At the other end, your complete identity, including social media accounts, can be bought for less than $150, and massively disrupt your life.

Between these two extremes lies the intermediate corporate case, with Nord VPN having found over 14,000 lists of corporate email addresses on the dark web. These accounts act as gateways to entire corporate networks, potentially leading to significant and often irreversible business damage.

“The reality is that your data could already be for sale, and you’d have no way of knowing unless you actively check,” warns Briedis. Its Dark Web Monitoring Pro actively scans the dark web for leaked credit card numbers, tax identification numbers and phone numbers.

If our data is so cheap to buy, how should we react? If there is any key takeaway, it is that identity theft is not always dramatic, and vigilance is key.

As cyberattacks continue to rise, using unique passwords for each account via a reliable password manager, enabling multi-factor authentication, and limiting the sharing of personal information online can make all the difference.

Silvia Iacovcich is a tech journalist with over five years of experience in the field, including AI, cybersecurity, and fintech. She has written for various publications focusing on the evolving regulatory landscape of AI, digital behavior, web 3, and blockchain, as well as social media privacy and security regulations.

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