A new report from external threat intelligence firm IntSights Inc. details the rise of a “dark web” forum specializing in a digital identities market that offers stolen “digital fingerprints” of a user’s web browsing history.

The dark web is a part of the internet reachable with special software, where people can buy and sell illicit products and services.

Richlogs, described as a competitor to current dark web market leader Genesis, is said to have joined the ranks in terms of top dark sites collecting and selling stolen digital fingerprints. A digital fingerprint, sometimes referred to as a browser fingerprint, encompasses data from a user’s web browser and computer characteristics that are used for identification of a particular user.

The fingerprints are used to identify individual users, fully or partially, of devices. They work perfectly fine for average web usage but can allow bad actors to impersonate a victim. Companies such as Amazon.com Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc., Facebook Inc. and various others use digital fingerprints to identify users, but in the wrong hands it allows attackers to access accounts they shouldn’t be able to, circumventing advanced identity protection services in the process.

“The level of intrusion into a victim’s life that digital identities provide is alarming. It’s not just credit cards, bank accounts, or personally identifying information at stake,” said Ariel Ainhoren, head of research at IntSights. “Digital identities offer threat actors the ability to almost completely take over someone’s online browsing identity. This includes everything from accessing expenses to tracking daily travel routes, to seeing tax information.”

And the bigger the digital footprint of victims, the more they can be impersonated by an attacker, Ainhoren added.

Richlogs launched in April with a pitch that it was “developed to enable you to find premium quality logs to satisfy your needs.” The logs offered by the forum claim to come with full fingerprint data including cookie and browsing history in each log. The price of each log starts from $1 with a disturbing list of choices, including access to cryptocurrency wallets, bank accounts and gaming accounts. Payment is via bitcoin or Monero.

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