BullGuard Premium Protection

One of the main aims of hackers and cyber criminals is to steal identity information, ranging from emails addresses and passwords to financial details to make money. This information has great value for crooks; it can be traded, sold, used for spam and used to create false identities. The acquisition of identity information is one of the main drivers for large scale hacks. This stolen data is used in several ways: • Sold on the black market • Used to carry out credit fraud or to access the victim’s financial accounts • Use of stolen credit cards to make online purchases • Make use of someone’s identity to hide real identity of perpetrator Identity information is stolen or fraudulently acquired to impersonate the victim for various purposes. This includes applying for financial services such as loans and credit cards and gaining access to bank accounts or other online services such as email, entertainment services. However it also used by the thief to create an identity they can use or sold to others who want to remain incognito for a range of nefarious purposes.

It’s typically sold on the dark web. This is the part of the internet that can’t be accessed via normal browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. To access it you need an anonymising browser such as Tor which hides a user’s location. This is why it is so popular with hackers and cyber criminals; they can advertise their wares without fear of being located. In turn, this has led to a thriving underground industry in which stolen ID details are bought and sold.

It can be used to create passports, driving licenses, social security numbers or full-blown false identities for fraud. Credit and debit card details are often sold to ‘carders’ who use the stolen card numbers to create cards which are then sold on and typically used to make online purchases, such as high-value electronic goods.

Your personal details are stored by many different organisations, such as retailers where you have shopped, government organisations, charities you have contributed too and so on. If any of these organisations or web sites are successfully hacked then you information is immediately exposed. As soon as it appears on a dark website for instance, in a chat room, or an online forum BullGuard detects it and notifies you immediately by SMS and email with advice on what to do next. This ensures you can take steps to protect yourself before your information is sold or used for other purposes.

There are other identity protection products but they are reactive in that they will identify your personal information after it has been used. BullGuard Identity Protection is proactive in that it can identify stolen information before it is used. Added to this it incorporates features found in other BullGuard products such as award-winning antivirus and free backup and support making it one of the most robust and advanced protection suites available today.