Free Dark Web Scanning: A Titanic Tool to Fight Identity Theft

Understanding the dark web and identity monitoring

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From computer viruses to human viruses, we’ve all learned that things you can’t see can hurt you. Since unseen threats are top of mind right now, it’s a great time to review another source of unseen threats: the dark web. We’ll look at what lurks in its depths, how IDX’s CyberScan^TM technology helps safeguard users against identity and privacy threats, and what else you can do to protect yourself. See if your personal information is on the dark web at try.idx.us/cyberscan.

Here’s what you need to know about the dark web:

it’s actually a small part of the web, but it’s the part where really bad stuff happens. Think of the world-wide web as being an iceberg. (And if you ever saw the movie Titanic, you know what happens to people who ignore icebergs!)

• The “surface web,” is the part that you interact with day-to-day and that’s visible to search engines. It only makes up about 10 percent of the total world-wide web.
• Below that is what’s called the “deep web.” Much of the deep web is comprised of information inside corporate, government, and other networks that can’t be discovered by search engines.
• Lurking far below the surface, is the “dark web,” an encrypted portion of the deep web that is only accessible with special software, so its users can be anonymous or untraceable. The dark web is where criminals buy and sell illegal products, including drugs, pornography, as well as stolen personal information that can be used for identity theft and other nefarious deeds.

Watch this 1 min video to learn more about CyberScan:

The truth about dark web scans

Billions of records of personal information have been breached in recent years, so you can assume that some of your personal information will end up for sale on the dark web sooner or later. A good scanning technology tells you when your personal information has been compromised, even beyond the dark web. The sooner you’re alerted, the sooner you can take action, hopefully before criminals can assemble a complete identity for sale and use your stolen identity to make money.

Data breaches happen all the time, and there’s no telling which piece of your personal information will be posted on the dark web or even when. That’s why the power of a good dark web scan lies in comprehensive, continuous scanning. Our CyberScan technology, continuously monitors more than 14 billion data points across the entire web, performs expert validation on the data it finds, and alerts users if their email has been compromised. (The other most common dark web scanning product only does a one-time scan of only 600K sites.) Alerts from CyberScan also include recommended actions to prevent criminals from exploiting the compromised information—actions such as freezing accounts, changing passwords, or setting alerts on transactions or login attempts.

Another important consideration when using a dark web scanning tool is whether you trust the company providing the tool with your personal information. 100% focused on protecting consumers from privacy and identity threats, IDX does not sell your personal data. While some competitors view consumers as data points to sell, your protection and safety online is always our top priority.

Dark web scanning is a powerful tool in your identity protection toolkit. That’s why the nation’s leading online loan marketplace, Lending Tree, has announced that it’s incorporating a portion of IDX’s proprietary CyberScan technology to power its new identity monitoring feature. Lending Tree’s members will now have their user email address monitored for suspicious behavior across the surface, deep, and dark webs.

A good start, but there’s so much more…

While free dark web scanning is an important first step in being alerted when your personal information, it’s really just the first step in protecting yourself and your loved ones from evolving privacy and identity threats. Once you’ve got some level of scanning in place, here’s what you need to do to really protect yourself:

• Implement good password hygiene. Password managers can be an amazing help and there are some great techniques out there for creating a strong password that’s easy to remember.
• Educate yourself and your family on common scams and fraud like phishing scams or fake phone calls.
• Upgrade your identity monitoring to include more personal data points like credit bureaus, court records and even social media.

While Titanic managed to make the aftermath of an iceberg seem romantic, wouldn’t it have been nice if our favorite characters had avoided the iceberg altogether? IDX lets you take control of your own story, giving you the chance to avoid that impending iceberg and live happily ever after.

Are you a Lending Tree member? If so, we invite you to visit your MyLendingTree dashboard and select “Identity Monitoring” from the drop down menu under your name.

Not a lending Tree member? You can still try CyberScan for free by visiting try.idx.us/cyberscan. If you like the service, you can sign up for a more comprehensive plan that monitors many more data points and includes expert recovery services to help you in case criminals have already taken advantage of your personal information.