A study from VeriSign’s cyber security watchdog iDefense has revealed a huge increase over the past year in demand for nicked social network user accounts, many of which go on to be sold internationally on the black market including over forums.
Once information available on social networking is secured it is auctioned off in bulk to other nefarious ne’er-do-wells for the regular dodgy practices we’re familiar with, such as money transfer scams, data mining and malware and spam campaigns.
It recently uncovered a web forum where advice and trading of login details was on an absolutely tremendous scale. One particular user, going by the name of ‘kirllos’ claimed that he was selling 1.5 million compromised accounts. Typically prices were $25 for 1,0000 accounts with 10 contacts or fewer, or $45 if there were over 10 contacts.
Read more on TechEye.net.