Have you ever wondered what hackers really stand to gain by stealing your confidential information? This article published by FoxNews.com helps shed some light on the economy of private information.
While the national economy suffers, the one run by identity thieves in the dark corners of the Internet isn’t hurting. In fact, demand and prices for stolen credit cards, Social Security numbers and other private information remain stable. The supply of confidential data is steady too, thanks to the way the recession has inspired new scams targeting people who are worried about work and their finances.
Alfred Huger, vice president of Symantec Security Response affirms, “There’s no pricing pressure at all — it’s not dropping, they’re not negotiating down, and that tells us that there are still the same number of buyers. The underground economy has not been affected by the recession.”
If the strength of the information theft economy doesn’t upset you, the meager price for which your personal information is exchanged should:
- Stolen credit card number, $0.06 – $30
- Access to a hijacked email account, $0.10 – $100
- Bank account credentials, $10 -$1,000 and scammers can reportedly cash out your bank account for 8%-50% of the amount they’re stealing!
The pipeline for stolen data is being replenished by phony “phishing” e-mails that are becoming more common as the economy worsens. In fact, Symantec has seen a startling 66 percent increase in the number of phishing Web sites in the last year.
Even if your identity hasn’t been compromised, you are probably feeling the affect of of these phisihing attempts on your inbox. Securing your email accounts with enterprise, level spam-stopping email protection can help protect your identity.
Click here to learn more about FireHost’s enterprise, level email solutions and spam protection.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
