Stolen Identities Worth Five Bucks Each on the Black Market

Don't you feel special?

Every day, you log in to your email and your social media accounts to interact with your friends, family, and coworkers online. Perhaps less frequently, you log in to your favorite e-commerce platform, or your bank account to check the ebbs and flows of your funds. And every once in a while, you input your social security number, credit card information, and your mother's maiden name into those sites.

And all of this information, in the hands of the right hacker, can be bundled up and sold in packages on the online black market. While you might not be surprised at the notion that people are willing to pay for personal information, you might be a bit taken aback at how much social-media activity is worth.