Buying Bank Details Over The Net Is A Thriving Business
Catherine
A new business has emerged through the internet and is doing a roaring trade. Bank details make up part of the information that is stolen every day through various means and sold for as little as five pounds over the net.
The discovery by Symantec, a specialist firm dealing with web security and management of information, say the trading of stolen information is a fast growing business. It is even possible to advertise these items in ‘cyber crime supermarkets’. In fact, bank details make up a staggering 22 per cent of things sold in this fashion, with credit card details accounting for 13 per cent of this total.
European credit cards fetch more revenue than US cards due to their lower supply rate and a lot of these details are obtained through ‘phishing’, where people are tricked into giving out their details to what they think is a reputable source.
Symnatec say they observed nearly 88,000 phishing hosts in the last half of 2007 and this is a growing problem. Hackers are also overcoming every obstacle put in their path to collect information that they can sell on for profit. It used to be relatively easy to avoid ‘dodgy’ websites and stick with ones with high security but thieves have wised up to this and are now setting up legitimate websites that do the same job.
Towards the end of last year an investigation was carried out by The Times in which over 100 legitimate websites were found to be trafficking British bank details from as little as one pound each and even a British ‘e-passport’ which, according to the Government, is unhackable.
Like drug dealers, these sites are offering up to 32 sets of details to be downloaded free of charge to entice people to pay for even more. This is of serious concern when the British public were appalled at the recent loss of data by HM Customs and the problem needs to be addressed as a matter or urgency.
Posted on: Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 10:42 am 
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