Norton suite now adds Dark Web Monitoring cybersecurity feature in Singapore

NortonLifeLock, the company behind the Norton 360 cybersecurity software suite, launches its Dark Web Monitoring feature in Singapore, for select Norton 360 plans.

Available for Norton 360 Premium, Norton 360 Plus and Norton 360 for Gamers, you can register personal details with the Norton 360 software, such as your email address.

Dark Web Monitoring will search the dark web, where the dark web, a portion of the un-indexed internet where anonymity is valued for both legal and illegal purposes, for the details you choose to register, and alerts you whenever your data is discovered.

More specifically, a dashboard within Norton 360 will show pieces of personal information that can be added for monitoring. These include up to five insurance account numbers, email addresses and phone numbers, and up to ten credit card numbers and gamer tags.

Whenever Dark Web Monitoring finds the information on something like a website or forum, the notification will allow you to take direct actions to rectify the situation, including changing your password or contacting a trusted service provider.

Mark Gorrie, Asia Pacific director for NortonLifeLock, notes that though data breaches of big companies are often publicised, breaches for smaller companies aren't and it seems that that's what the plan is targeted towards.

"While data breaches involving large companies have become familiar topics on the news, smaller organisations are also targeted by cybercriminals and these events may not be heavily publicised, although the impact on lives is just as real." said Mark Gorrie, Senior Director, Asia Pacific, NortonLifeLock.

NortonLifeLock also references the Singapore Cybersecurity Landscape 2020 report, which stated that cybercrime cases accounted for almost half of the overall crime rate in 2020, and mentions Singapore's upgraded Cyber Security Strategy, to illustrate the importance of this feature.

Current subscribers to the aforementioned Norton 360 plans can receive this feature for free through a software update, and depending on the plan, can extend across a certain number of smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs.

For those not familiar, Norton 360 Premium offers protection for up to five devices, Norton 360 Deluxe covers up to ten devices, and Norton 360 for Gamers safeguards up to three devices.

Though the onus of preventing identity theft is on the user and how they choose to use their information online, it's by no means an easy task.

And though we can't (yet) vouch for the effectiveness of Norton's Dark Web Monitoring, if you're already subscribed to one of the aforementioned Norton 360 plans, an extra security tool can't hurt, and it might even make a good mitigation tool if you do happen to find your information on the dark web.

While Apple and Google offer security checkups on their own, they don't extend beyond their respective walled gardens and offerings.

For example, every Google account offers a number of checks as part of your account's Security Checkup dashboard. Using Google Chrome browser?

Then you'll want to take note of its new site permission-ing and phishing detection features you can toggle. Apple offers something similar too . Norton's new Dark Web Monitoring, however, goes beyond, and that's something for consideration.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.