Is Your Private Information Available on the Dark Web? Here’s One Way to Find Out

By now, you’ve probably heard of the dark web, but incase you haven’t, here’s the rundown. The dark web is a small section of the deep web, which is the portion of the internet that isn’t indexed by search engines. Accessing the dark web typically requires specialized software and know-how, but once on it, individuals can buy anything from narcotics or illegal weapons to counterfeited documents or stolen data.

It’s that underground portion of the internet filled with breached data, hackers, and all manners of illegal activity. Of course, it’s the kind of place you don’t want your sensitive, personal information ending up; and it used to be impossible to know if your data was actually hidden within the dark web already. Well, that might no longer be the case. A new automated service, called Matchlight, created by data and cybersecurity professionals at the Baltimore, Maryland-based Terbium Labs, works a web crawler that sifts through the dark web for compromising or stolen data, according to InsideHook.

“Defense is no longer sufficient. Terbium operates under the assumption that your data is always at risk,” the company writes on its website, “We believe that if you can’t stop everything then the next best option is quick and quiet detection.”

And the damage done by stolen data can cost well-known companies millions of dollars. Terbium Labs has a slew of high-profile clients — such as IBM, Reuters and Skry. And while these giant businesses pay big bucks to use the Matchlight service, you don’t have to. The firm has recently opened up Matchlight for individual use — free of charge — InsideHook reported.

You can monitor up to five different records a month for free. That includes sensitive data such as social security numbers, personal and work emails, password reset questions, and other information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. So if you’re, at the very least, a little bit concerned about your data, it’s probably worth it to sign up for the service. You can never be too careful about your sensitive information, and every little bit to protect it goes a long way.