Dark web.

In plain English

The dark web is a set of sites that ordinary browsers and search engines cannot reach, because they require anonymizing software that hides both the server and the visitor. That anonymity has legitimate uses, including for journalists and people living under censorship. It also supports marketplaces where stolen card numbers, logins, and identity records change hands. Prices are low and volume is high, so a single stolen credential is a commodity rather than a targeted attack on you.

01Why it matters

If a monitoring service says your information appeared on a dark web market, the useful responses are changing that password, turning on multi-factor authentication, and freezing your credit, because nothing can actually be deleted from those markets.

02The math, step by step

Say a stolen login sells for $2 and a full identity record for $15. A batch of 10,000 records at $15 is $150,000 to the seller, which is why breached data gets monetized in bulk rather than one victim at a time.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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