Bob Erdman, Associate VP of R&D at Fortra, is quoted in a recent The Epoch Times feature exploring how personal data accumulates on the darknet, how criminals monetize breach information, and why these underground markets continue to grow despite law enforcement action. Erdman highlights how repeated breach exposures allow attackers to build and trade increasingly complete identity profiles, underscoring the long-term risk of fragmented data leaks.
Originally published in The Epoch Times.
Excerpt: "You would be amazed how much personal data is drifting around on the darknet just from breach notifications. It seems like every month you get a new breach notification from some company or website you’ve interacted with, and all those little pieces keep getting assembled to build a profile of you, and then get resold to someone who’s either going to try [to] attack you or try and use you to attack somebody else."
The Epoch Times: Why Your Personal Data Are Floating Around on the Darknet, Which Just Keeps Growing
Published on February 16, 2026
