What does it mean if your email address was found on the dark web?

How did your email address get on the dark web?

It’s very common for email addresses to end up on the dark web. After all, it’s one of the most widely used means of online identification. If you want to sign up for services, create social media accounts, confirm and track purchases, or even access your medical or financial data online, you often need to use your email address.

Unlike your passwords, which you must keep private, email addresses are publicly accessible even on the surface web. If your email is on the dark web, it may have been:

• Sold to third parties. Some websites sell user data to third parties, like advertisers and data brokers. The buyers can have malicious intent and place this information for sale on the dark web, hoping to increase their profits.
• Taken from publicly available data. Email addresses placed on public websites can be easily accessed and placed in databases on the dark web.
• Stolen during a data breach. One of the most common ways for email addresses to appear on the dark web is following a data breach. Usually, the email addresses are part of stolen databases that contain other sensitive information, like users’ passwords and financial details.
• Acquired through malware use. Similar to data breaches, email addresses can be stolen during other types of cyber attacks. For example, criminals may use malware to infect a device to access its files or install a keylogger to view what the user is typing.
• Accidentally leaked. Sometimes an email address can end up on the dark web, not through a transaction or from stolen databases, but because a user accidentally exposed this information, and someone deemed it valuable enough to share on the darknet.

You might not always be able to tell which incident caused your sensitive data to be placed on the dark web. However, if you know about a reported breach, the situation might be concerning. Data that was acquired maliciously might be more likely to be sold to cybercriminals for profit and misused.

It’s also likely that more personal information is exposed when criminals share it. If they have access to your email account, they can check if any previous breaches contained it and search for exposed passwords. They can then use all the combined information to try to access your accounts and use your personal information to commit identity theft.

For instance, if they gain access to your bank account and, through it, discover your Social Security number, they can take out fraudulent loans or funnel funds. With access to your medical information, they can claim your insurance or take out prescriptions in your name. The severity of the crime depends on how much access to your personally identifiable information they gain.

What happens if your email address is on the dark web?

If your email address is on the dark web, you don’t need to panic, but you shouldn’t dismiss it either. Just your email address being affected doesn’t mean your account will be immediately stolen. However, even this limited information can be enough for cybercriminals to cause trouble.

You might notice an influx of suspicious emails and spam. That might be caused by criminals taking your email address from the dark web and using it for phishing campaigns. If a user clicks on any attachments or links in a spam email and enters their information, the hackers can steal their login credentials and gain access to their account.

Malicious actors can also sign you up for various email listings or newsletters. This might not directly affect the safety of your account, but public listings can expose your email address further. The more exposed your email is, the more likely you are to be targeted by phishing campaigns. Constant clutter of spam emails can also overload your inbox and take up unnecessary storage space.

If you have publicly available information tied to your email account, criminals can look it up and claim it. If they can piece together enough personal information, they might attempt to impersonate you. For example, they may try to access financial or medical services using your name.

The real concern is whether cybercriminals can find the password to your inbox. The harm that someone can do with your email address includes viewing all your sent and received confidential emails, resetting and stealing other accounts, overriding security settings, and, if you use a service like Google, accessing your contacts, cloud storage, or calendar. A full email breach directly endangers your digital privacy and increases the risk of becoming a victim of identity fraud.

What to do if your email address is found on the dark web

If you’ve discovered your email address on the dark web, you can take a few actions to immediately secure your personal information online.

1. Change your email address’ password

Even if they don’t have your password, cybercriminals may try to breach your email account and gain access to your inbox using brute-force attacks. To protect your account, create a new complex password containing at least eight characters and use a variation of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. Do not reuse this password for any other account and never share it with anyone.

2. Run a dark web scan

If one piece of your digital data is on the dark web, chances are you’ll find more. However, with billions of records floating around, finding them manually is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can set up a dark web monitoring tool to search for sensitive data, like credit card details or passwords, in known breach databases and get an alert if any of your sensitive data is compromised.

3. Update the passwords of your other accounts

You’ve got your new email address set up. Time to reset your other accounts. If you have a habit of reusing the same password for multiple accounts, and at least one of those accounts got breached, the rest are also at risk of being exposed. Use strong and unique passwords for all your online accounts. Keep the process simpler with a password manager that creates, stores, and autofills credentials for you.

4. Set up multi-factor authentication

Even if you change your passwords, criminals might try to override your account by spamming you with password reset requests. You can reinforce your account security by setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA). It acts as an extra step during your login process. Usually, you need to use an authenticator app to enter a one-time code or use biometric authentication to verify your login attempts.

5. Look out for spam and phishing emails

If your email is on the dark web, you might start receiving more suspicious emails than usual. Cybercriminals can spam your email account in hopes you will fall for one of the phishing attacks and give up your personal information, like your login credentials or credit card details, without knowing it.

6. Check your device for malware

Although it’s unlikely that your device was breached, simply because your email was exposed on the dark web. However, if you’ve received more phishing mail than usual and have accidentally clicked on or downloaded any suspicious files, it’s good practice to run a thorough device scan to catch any potential malware.

7. Check your financial accounts

Financial accounts are some of the most lucrative data for dark web dwellers. They’re closely tied to your other sensitive data, which can be used for identity theft. Check all your financial accounts for signs of unauthorized use. If you spot any red flags, you can lock or freeze your credit accounts.

8. Report suspicious activity

If you notice suspicious activity related to your financial accounts, contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Create an official incident report so that if your sensitive personal information is misused in the future, you can prove you’ve become a victim of identity theft.

Can you remove your email address from the dark web?

No, it’s practically impossible to permanently remove your email address or other personally identifiable information from the dark web. You can try contacting the FBI or the FTC to request removal, or use a paid service. However, these options often can’t achieve the desired results.

Tracking down who published your personal information on the dark web and issuing a removal request is very complicated. The likelihood of this information reappearing is high, so any attempts to remove your information from the darknet are usually temporary, if at all successful.

Should you change your exposed email address?

Changing your email address after it’s found on the dark web is usually unnecessary. Email service providers typically don’t let users change their user names, so you would need to create a brand new email address and transfer all your accounts to it, which would be a lengthy process. Instead, you can use email masking tools to hide your real email address online.

However, if your primary email account has been compromised and you got locked out, you should consider creating a backup account. Reach out to your service provider’s support team to see if you can regain access to your first account. Keep in mind that if you start using your backup account as your primary inbox, it might also end up on the dark web.

How to check if your email address is on the dark web

Sometimes, a service provider that experienced a data breach might alert you if your data, including your email address, was affected. However, breaches often go unreported for months, meaning that your email might be hiding on the dark web without your knowledge.

A quick way to see your email’s status is to use an online data breach checker. These tools let you enter your email address and see if it’s been noted in any known data incidents. However, they’re usually only useful for tracking one type of stolen data. You can only look up your email address, so other personal data incidents might go overlooked.

Alternatively, you can use thorough dark web monitoring. These tools actively track the dark web 24/7 and offer more extensive monitoring that includes your email address, login credentials, and credit card information. They send out alerts as soon as they detect any exposed data, allowing you to promptly respond to data breaches.

How to protect your email address and personal information

Keeping your email address off the dark web might seem like an impossible task. However, you can definitely improve your personal security and protect your other online accounts and personal data from ending up in the wrong hands.

• Use a password manager. If you need to update the passwords to your personal accounts or sign up for new services, you can simplify this process with a password manager. It lets you automatically generate new strong passwords, stores them in an encrypted vault, and autofills them whenever you need to log in.
• Only share your email address when necessary. Each new account created with your email address increases the likelihood of it ending up on the dark web.
• Set up a decoy email address. If you need to quickly use a service that requires a new account but don’t want to share your real information, you can set up an email mask. It generates a decoy display name that you can link to your email account. That way, you can filter out spam and phishing attempts more conveniently.
• Switch on additional security features. Protect your accounts with two-factor authentication or switch to passwordless login methods like passkeys to prevent password-related breaches. Use security questions and one-time codes to verify your login attempts.
• Learn to recognize phishing scams. Although scammers have become more proficient with their phishing attacks, creating more elaborate campaigns with the help of AI, you can still learn to spot a phishing email and block suspicious senders from spamming you.
• Use email spam filters. Email filters reduce the amount of spam and restrict access to your inbox. They help automatically detect and flag suspicious emails, lowering the risk of successful phishing attacks or malware affecting your device.
• Secure your connection with a VPN. If you connect to public, unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, cybercriminals can access them and view your data — login credentials included. Protect your important accounts from unauthorized exposure by always using a VPN to secure your network access.

• Get identity theft protection service. Data breaches can be scary, even if they only affect public information. To lower the risk of personal data incidents affecting you, consider signing up for NordProtect’s identity theft protection. It offers dark web and credit monitoring services and provides financial support for eligible identity theft cases, helping you be prepared for the worst-case scenarios.