Social networks and online games are the new hiding places of today's increasingly mature hacking community, warns Symantec in its latest six-monthly Internet Security Threat Report.
The report says attackers worldwide are increasingly targeting sites that are likely to be trusted by end users such as social networking or games sites. And at the same time they are increasing their ability to market the information they gain to a far more mature underground economy.
The underground economy is pretty damn street-smart: it is learning all the tricks of the legitimate marketing world, including discounting for bulk supplies of sensitive information, including Internet banking log-ins and credentials, says Craig Scoggie, Asia-Pacific veep for Symantec.
If you have enough IDs to sell, the bulk price can go as low as a few cents for a credit card number. You can imagine how much can be gained from that investment.
