I Tried a Dark Web Monitoring Service—Here's What I Found Out
1 min read
Summary
A dark web monitoring service scans hidden sites for personal details that may have been compromised in data breaches
There are free services that can do this, as well as paid-for versions that offer extra functions
The writer signed up for F-Secure’s ID Protection, which scans the dark web for details including email addresses and credit card numbers, and alerts the user if any are found
After signing up, the service instantly reported that the writer’s data had been exposed in multiple data breaches, some of them recent
The severity of each breach is indicated, with high-severity breaches meaning that highly sensitive information such as passwords or social security numbers have been exposed
Although the service provides a useful alert system, no dark web monitoring can prevent data breaches
