One of the most disturbing cybercrime trends in 2008, many security analysts say, has been the emergence of a full-blown underground economy where credit card information, identity theft information, and spam and phishing software are all available for relatively low prices. View our slide show of 2008's biggest tech crime stories
Security software company Symantec became the latest company to raise red flags about what it called the "underground server" economy last month, when it issued a report estimating that roughly $276 million
worth of goods and information is available on online black markets. Credit card data accounted for 59% of the information
available for sale on underground servers, Symantec reported, with identity theft information (16%), server accounts (10%),
financial accounts (8%) and spam and phishing programs (6%) trailing far behind.
What's even more unnerving than the availability of this information is its low price. According to Symantec, bank account credentials are selling for $10 to $1,000, while information about financial Web sites' vulnerabilities sell for an average $740. If all the stolen information available on the servers were exploited successfully, it would bring in about $5 billion, Symantec estimates.
One big reason this data is more widely available is that writing malicious code has grown from a hobby for many hackers into a full-time job where code writers make a living stealing information and selling it over underground server systems, says Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at McAfee Avert Labs.
News 3 years ago
