Nearly P1 billion worth of items sold in Philippine dark web market

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine driver’s licenses, personal IDs, email, Netflix passwords, credit card data and online accounts are just among the data pieces sold in the dark web market.

This is according to cybersecurity company NordVPN, which has conducted research on cybersecurity in the Philippines.

It said more than 720,000 items and data prices worth P908 million have been illegally sold in the dark web market as of the date the research data was received on April 1.

The research showed that Philippine driving licenses can be bought for as little as P417.2 per piece, the cheapest price on the market. However, payment card data from the country is one of the most expensive in the world.

“This one market is just the tip of an iceberg. There are over 30,000 websites on the dark web at the moment. Keep in mind that only four percent of the entire internet belongs to the surface web that is available to any user online,” Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN said.

The study was conducted in partnership with third-party cybersecurity researchers with an aim to warn users about the possible dangers of illegal activities people take part in on the dark web, NordVPN said.

An easy way for hackers to steal a user’s data or digital asset is credential stuffing. This is done when the leaked password or email is used to get access to other platforms, it said.

“Online accounts come at a low price: a hacked Netflix account can be bought for P524.8, an Uber account for P629.76  and a Twitter account for as little as P105,” the report said.

Country residents’ payment card data is sold for P1,042.3, twice as much as the world’s average at P524. The top countries in this list are Japan for the equivalent of P2,253 and Macau, the equivalent of P1,179.75.

Furthermore, the report said, some criminals also buy emails in batches and use them for phishing attacks or other malicious purposes.

It advised users to educate oneself to protect data, to stay vigilant and to monitor one’s account regularly.

The data was compiled in partnership with independent researchers specializing in cybersecurity incident research. They evaluated one marketplace on a dark web and analyzed its listing data, which included title, price, and country of shipment.

Data was received on April 1 and the exchange rate used at the time was P52.48 against the dollar.