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UK bank details sold for a fiver

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Date: Tuesday 08 Apr 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Criminals are stealing the bank account details of unsuspecting Britons and selling the information on the internet for as little as £5 a new report has revealed.

The latest twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec also observed that attackers are targeting users of popular social networking sites.

The report for the period 1 July to 31 December 2007 showed the United States was the top country for malicious activity, making 31% of worldwide total.

Britain ranked fourth in the table at 4% of the total, unchanged from last time. China and Germany both accounted for 7% of malicious activity during the last six months of 2007.

Bank accounts were the most commonly advertised item for sale on underground economy servers known to Symantec, accounting for 22% of all items.

It seems that identities of account holders in the European Union are the most expensive to buy, priced at around 50% more than US identities, indicating strong demand.

Online fraudsters have been offering 50 credit card numbers for $40, said Symantec, and 500 numbers for $200. Identities were also available in bulk, at $100 for 50 items.

Well over half the data breaches were down to theft or loss of computer or other data-storage medium, making 57% of the total and accounting for 61% of the identities exposed in the second half of 2007.