Francois Paget, an investigator at McAfee Avert Labs, has posted a detailed report on a site that gives us insight into the emerging international market for identity information. He writes:
Last Friday morning in France, my investigations lead me to visit a site proposing top-quality data for a higher price than usual. But when we look at this data we understand that as everywhere, you have to pay for quality. The first offer concerned bank logons. As you can see in the following screenshot, pricing depends on available balance, bank organization and country. Additional information such as PIN and Transfer Passphrase are also given when necessary:
For such prices, the seller offers some guaranties. For example, the purchase is covered by replacement, if you are unable – within the 24 hours – to log into the account using the provided details.
The selling site also proposes US, Austria and Spanish credit cards with full information…
It is also possible to purchase skimmers (for ATM machine) and “dump tracks” to create fake credit cards. Here too, cost is in touch with the quality:
Many other offers are available like shop administrative area accesses (back end of an online store where all the customer details are stored – from Name, SSN, DOB, Address, Phone number to CC) or UK or Swiss Passport information:
Read the rest of Francois’ story here. Beyond that, it's well worth keeping up with the Avert Labs blog, where every post reminds us that the future of the Internet depends on fundamentally increasing its security and privacy. [Note: I slightly condensed Francois’ graphics…]
