What Happens With Hacked Data

So what happens to all the private information that cybercriminals steal from social media users? Often hacked accounts are held at ransom and the account owner is instructed to pay a financial ransom or the hacker threatens to publish the victim’s personal data or permanently delete the hacked account.

In some cases, hackers threaten to steal and distribute intimate images that are supposed to be private. This is called sextortion and is widely taking place on the popular social media app Snapchat, where users have a My Eyes Only folder (private snaps saved in the app behind a passcode).

The majority of stolen data ends up compiled is large spreadsheets, millions of entries long, which is sold online on the dark web to the highest paying cybercriminals, likely to be used for further malicious hacking campaigns.In 2021, a hacker sold a database of around 500 million records from LinkedIn,4another hacker gave away a database of 1.3 million Clubhouse profiles for free, and 533 million Facebook user details were scraped and given away on a hackers' forum for donations.

Schools have always been a primary target for hackers. In 2021, NBC News collected and analyzed school files given away on a hacking forum and found data published from 1,200 K-12 schools in the US. The datasets included medical conditions, family financial statuses, social security numbers, birthdays, and other details that could potentially set those children up for a lifetime of identity theft and fraud.

Child Identity Theft

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the Western world and criminals aren’t only targeting adults with financial assets - they are increasingly targeting children.It was estimated that in 2021 alone, 1 in 50 US children were the victims of identity theft.Scammers have realised they can use your child’s sensitive information to take out credit cards, open loans, apply for benefits, and other financial crimes. And because we don’t often monitor our children’s credit scores the scams can remain undetected for years.

To give some examples, anyone with your child’s social insurance number can:

• Open a new bank account or credit card in their name
• Start fraudulent loans with multiple banks
• Buy vehicles and take out auto loans
• Apply for government benefits
• Sign-up for utility services
• File fraudulent tax returns and pocket the refunds
• Illegally gain employment or rental accommodation
• Create a synthetic identity, or fake person, from their data

Hacked Social Media Data

As well as child identity theft, there are other things that cyber criminals can do with your child’s hacked social media account data.Once hackers have gained control of a social media account, they can use it to spread malicious content and initiate phishing attacks to spam contacts and other social media users.

Cyber criminals will do this to try and gain control over more and more accounts and to be able spread their criminal activities.Other times, they will use hacked accounts to share inappropriate posts. This can damage your child’s reputation and impact their relationships negatively. Hackers will try and use hacked data to gain access to other social media accounts and online services where your child may use similar login12credentials. They will exploit this information to infiltrate other accounts potentially causing more harm.

Protect your children’s accounts and help your kid to become a Cyber Hero by reading our social media and blog posts about password security and authentication, phishing, and how to regularly monitor your kids' accounts for suspicious activity.

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Stay vigilant, friends! Let’s prioritize our online security and protect our children from the ever-evolving threats in the digital world

Be Educated. Be Connected. Be Safe.