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June 28, 2013

Cybercrime does pay, study finds

McAfee has published a report on cybercrime revealing just how easy it is for cybercriminals to buy your personal details online.

By Duncan Macrae

Cybercrime Exposed explains that credit card details can be bought o the black market for £16 without a PIN, £65 with PIN and £130 for a PIN and guaranteed good balance.

Stolen bank login information commands an even higher price than credit card numbers. EU online banking logins costs 4-6% of the account balance, US online banking logins cost 2% of the account balance, PayPal logins cost 6-20% of the account balance and Western Union transfer details cost 10% of the transfer amount

Pre prepared lists of email addresses can also be purchased. 1 million French email addresses cost £321.66, 10 million Florida email addresses will set buyers back £569.19, while 0.7 million email addresses of US doctors can be obtained for £73.89

Troels Oerting, head of EC3 European Cybercrime Centre, said: "Today’s cybercriminals do not necessarily require considerable technical expertise to get the job done, nor, in certain cases, do they even need to own a computer. All they need is a credit card.

"A marketplace offering cybercrime tools and services provides would-be criminals with an arsenal that can either be used as a component of a cyberattack or a handy way of outsourcing the process entirely.

"This underground marketplace is enabling an army of cybercriminals — and the cost is being borne by all citizens. According to recent research, 17% of European citizens have been victims of identity theft, costing an average of £1,076. Indeed, the ease with which such tools are available enables cybercriminals to target not only citizens, but also businesses and governments at a rapidly growing rate."

Raj Samani, CTO, McAfee EMEA, commented: "There’s no doubt that cybercrime is on the increase. That is the message from multiple sources across both the public and private sectors. Indeed, the FBI reported a decline in physical crimes such as bank robberies in 2012, as opposed to cybercrime, which has increased at an alarming rate.

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"Clearly, the risk associated with physical crimes, such as bank robberies, contributes to such a shift; cybercriminals enjoy the luxury of carrying out their crimes from a physical location of their choosing.

"One possible contributing factor to this increase is the ease with which cybercrime tools are available. Moreover, the cybercrime market now affords potential criminals with a multitude of services which means that deep technical expertise is not a prerequisite. We are witnessing the emergence of a whole new breed of cybercriminal. As a result, the volume of cyber-attacks is likely to increase, and current trends and data suggest that this is exactly what we are seeing today."

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