Malaysians are spending more time online today and it is not surprising why. Advanced mobile technology is pushing digitalisation ahead in many areas of our daily lives. For example, grocery shopping, banking transactions, and even investing, which were typically done offline can now be done online, either through web portals or apps on a smartphone.

According to Cyber Security Incidents 2021 by CyberSecurity Malaysia, 71.5% of cyber incidents in Malaysia consisted of fraud, while the other 28.5% included malicious code, intrusion, content-related, and cyber harassment.

The top three fraud-related incidents included phishing, online scam, and fraud purchase. Impersonation and spoofing were the top compliant cases lodged by consumers, followed by illegal investment. 

Thus, in this article, we explore briefly how our online activities can expose our personal information to irresponsible cybercriminals who then release our data into the Dark Web for personal gain – and what you can do to prevent it.    

What Is the Dark Web? 

The Internet or the World Wide Web (www) consists of three parts; Surface Web, Deep Web, and Dark Web. Each of these parts hosts different types of content, with certain access limits. 

The Surface Web is where you will find content that is readily available to the public such as news sites, social media sites, blogs, online stores, and more. They are searchable by common search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Most of us are familiar with the Surface Web since we use it daily.

Meanwhile, the Deep Web consists of sites that require security, encryption, and anonymity. These include your password-protected email account, paid subscription services, databases, and even police files. 

The Dark Web, on the other hand, is a hidden and unsearchable network of websites that uses encryption software to hide identities and IP addresses. The Dark Web is known to include illegal and illicit information such as stolen goods, weapons, drugs, and personal information. 

The Dark Web, A Gateway For Identity Theft

The anonymous nature of the Dark Web makes it almost impossible to track or identify users of the Dark Web. This is why the Dark Web is a fitting platform for the sale and purchase of stolen personal information such as emails, full names, and phone numbers. 

You may think that these are just harmless everyday information, but unscrupulous individuals can use them to hack and breach important data to their advantage such as withdrawing money from a bank account, applying for a loan, accessing social media accounts, and so on. 

These acts are also known as identity theft, which can lead victims to financial loss, emotional distress, and in extreme cases, wrongful criminal charges. 

Safeguard Your Personal Information With TrackMyID

You can potentially prevent identity theft by practising some precautionary acts such as accessing only secure and verified websites, constantly monitoring all your online activities, and be extra mindful of the personal information you share online. 

On the other hand, you can also rely on a hassle-free, modern solution such as TrackMyID, a personal information monitoring service by Experian.

TrackMyID is a yearly subscription service that allows users to monitor their personal information on the Dark Web and send timely alerts to users if their data is found on the Dark Web. 

TrackMyID lets users monitor their sensitive personal information online, specifically: 

• IC Numbers
• Passport Numbers
• Emails (up to 10 entries)
• Phone Numbers (up to 10 entries)
• Local Bank Account Numbers (up to 10 entries)
• International Bank Account Numbers (up to 10 entries)

24/7 Scan Powered By CyberAgent® Technology 

So, where do data breaches commonly take place? They can happen in any cyberspace such as internet forums, websites, search engine queries, and even your daily social networking sites. You can also risk exposing your personal information by accessing anonymous and suspicious websites and by unknowingly downloading malware and botnets from these websites or any torrent sources.   

TrackMyID employs the use of Experian’s CyberAgent® Technology which runs through the global networks and sites, including the Dark Web for user’s stolen personal information. 

This allows TrackMyID to effectively monitor and scan for any unauthorised use of your personal information. If your stolen personal information is found on the Dark Web, TrackMyID can capture what type of credential is being stolen or leaked, as well as the data trail such as where the information was stolen or leaked from.

Get Alerted & Advised When Your Data Is Being Compromised

In the case when users’ personal information is found to be traded online on the Dark Web, TrackMyID will send alerts to users via email or SMS.

Additionally, these alerts come with recommended next steps that the user can take to act on the misuse of his/her personal information. Not only that this helps to guide users to solve and minimise the damage done, but the recommended steps will also help users to restore the security of their personal information and prevent the same thing from happening again.

For example; if your email address is found on the Dark Web, TrackMyID will alert you that your data has been breached.  Next, TrackMyID will advise you to change your email password and enable the Two-Factor Authentication process to prevent unauthorised users from accessing your email account in the future. 

Furthermore, if your IC numbers or Passport numbers were leaked, TrackMyID will also advise you to lodge a police report. 

Enjoy A Free Email Scan And 50% Off For TrackMyID & JagaMyID

Experian is currently offering a free email scan and a 50% discount for their TrackMyID and JagaMyID services until 31 October 2021. 

This means that you can enjoy using TrackMyID at only RM15.90/year instead of its normal price of RM31.80/year. Besides that, you can also grab this chance to sign up for Experian’s JagaMyID, a credit notification alert and credit profile movement monitoring service at 50% off. 

JagaMyID can help you step up your personal information protection through its services such as monitoring your credit card and other credit facilities utilisation, tracking all credit card applications made under your name, tracking your monthly payment, and more. 

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Sensitive data such as your personal information can be at risk of being misused by irresponsible parties online. Especially with technological advances in today’s modern time, there are many ways for these irresponsible parties to collect your data without being authorised. However, there are also modern solutions that can help you better safeguard and prevent your personal information from being compromised online. One of such solutions is TrackMyID by Experian. 

TrackMyID by Experian can help by constantly monitoring the Dark Web to look out for the possibility of your personal information being traded or misused online. TrackMyID will also securely manage your personal data online to prevent identity theft and provide you peace of mind when doing all your online activities.

If you are interested to find out more about TrackMyID, visit their website here.

• TAGS:
• Dark Web
• Experian
• JagaMyID
• TrackMyID