The dark web is a scary place, and the last thing you want is to have any personal information about you out there for scammers to access. Recently, The United States Department of Justice revealed that Genesis Market, a criminal marketplace website selling access to over 80 million account access credentials, including usernames and passwords, was finally seized, and 119 of the site’s users were arrested. This illicit platform allowed cybercriminals to prey upon individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide, causing extensive harm.
What did Genesis Market do?
Genesis Market has been around since 2018 and was a huge resource for hackers because it would allow them to specifically search for information to target their next victims. This included anything from social media to bank account credentials and could be targeted to user location as well.
The website would work by selling those credentials and personal information, and it also sold access to users’ cookies and browser fingerprints. By doing this, hackers could bypass extra protections that users might have had on their accounts, like two-factor authentication. Genesis was even capable of giving a browser extension that would let the hackers fake the victim’s fingerprint while using their login cookies to gain access to an account.
What do I do if my data has been stolen?
Change your password
If your password was compromised, be sure to change it immediately. My tips and best expert-reviewed password managers of 2023 can be found here:
Invest in removal services
A service like Incogni can help you remove personal information, including your phone numbers, from the internet. It has a very clean interface and will scan 175+ websites for your information and remove it and keep it removed.
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Have strong antivirus software on all your devices
Once you’ve completed those steps, the best way to protect yourself from having your data breached is to have antivirus protection installed on all your devices.
Keeping hackers out of your devices can be prevented if you have good antivirus software installed. Having antivirus software on your devices will make sure you are stopped from clicking on any potential malicious links which may install malware on your devices, allowing hackers to gain access to your personal information.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
The takedown of the Genesis Market and the criminals associated with it was a huge win for law enforcement. However, other criminal marketplace websites are still out there on the dark web. They want to sell your personal information, which enables hackers to bypass security measures. It is important for you to check if your information was on Genesis and take measures like logging out of accounts, clearing cache and cookies, updating passwords and installing antivirus software to protect yourself. Also, investing in removal services can help monitor and remove personal information from the internet.
Have you found yourself on the dark web? What steps have you taken to remove your information from these sites? Let us know by commenting below.
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