Stolen Data So Plentiful, The Market For It Has Collapsed

from the valid-credit-cards?-sorry,-don't-need-any-more dept

Thu, Apr 10th 2008 5:01am — Mike Masnick

There are so many data leaks these days that it's hardly even newsworthy every time some company reveals your social security number and credit card. However, would you believe that it's also impacting the economics for fraudsters? Matt Bennett alerts us to the news that the price of fraudulently obtained data is falling through the floor thanks to the glut of it on the market. There are so many collections of credit cards or bank account numbers that the crooks who are buying them are buying them in bigger batches at greatly deflated prices. By the way, the falling dollar has impacted this as well: European identity data is worth a lot more than American identity data. So, I guess there's that to be thankful for.

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Filed Under: data leaks, identity fraud, security, supply and demand

25 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:07am

Isn't this what we have been trying to do for years with the music industry. Flood enough stolen product onto the market to influence the agency to drop prices of the real product?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:09am

FoxNews... Really!?
Tell me you're not blogging on a FoxNews article. Do you have any sense of credibility at all? I mean, it's fox'news'
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- Matt Bennett, 10 Apr 2008 @ 7:35am
  
  Re: FoxNews... Really!?
  Do you hate Fox News because you think it is actually disreputable, or because it slants it's news with a viewpoint you dislike? (and it does, I admit, but no more so CNN slants the other way, and much less than say the NYT)
  
  It was an AP piece, credited so, I just couldn't find the original AP article via google news so I gave up and linked the Fox News article. Note: I did that because certain people have ignorant reactions like yours.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 7:52am
    
    Re: Re: FoxNews... Really!?
    Matt Bennett, you are right and I am sorry.
    
    I will admit that most of the time my responses here on tech dirt are a bit ignorant and a call for attention.
    
    I've tried but not sure if I could do any better.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 9:07am
      
      Re: Re: Re: FoxNews... Really!?
      @ #10:
      
      STOP BEING REASONABLE! This is the Internet, act accordingly.
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    - Matt Bennett, 10 Apr 2008 @ 12:27pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: FoxNews... Really!?
      heh
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  - Anonymous Coward, 16 May 2008 @ 1:18am
    
    Re: Re: FoxNews... Really!?
    I think Fox slants about as much as NYT. On the other hand, I'm a centralist.
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 11:02am
  
  Re: FoxNews... Really!?
  It is AP story that was just linked on FOXNEWS...so I guess that makes the AP bad? I sense knee jerk emotional BDS without any attempt to use thought processes.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:12am

They're probably paying less since not many people have an identity worth stealing these days
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 9:05am
  
  Re:
  @ AC #2:
  
  So you read the article too?
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ReallyEvilCanine, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:15am

European data
Save for the Big Brother state (UK), European data is a lot harder to get, especially in Germany thanks to strict privacy and data protection laws, not that Schäuble isn't doing his best to dismantle this in the name of Protecting Us From TEH TAIRISTS!
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chris (profile), 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:27am

data leakage is nothing
"sensitive" data gets leaked all the time. no one cares, least of all the companies that do the leaking.

90% of these leaks are lost/stolen laptops and USB memory sticks and everyone is immediately aware of the issue because the device is missing. what if the device was not stolen, but changed in some way?

what i am waiting to see is a situation where data is not stolen, but changed in some way that is not immediately obvious, like lowering everyone's grades by 3 points at a college, or changing all the blood types at a hospital, or cutting everyone's credit scores in half.

right now, we are all used to seeing obvious failures. what do you do when the failure isn't obvious?
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Give me credit, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:31am

I know my personal data is not worth as much as it was months ago. Whoever steals my identity will be disappointed.
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Witty Nickname, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:49am

Fox News
If you watch the actual channel they are biased, but there is nothing wrong with their website - CNN, MSN and Fox ususally run the same wire stories anyway, Fox has the best RSS feed, with CNN you sometimes see the same stories listed 3 or 4 times. So, for that reason I get most of my news from foxnews.com and it is all the same.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 6:59am

think this was reported first by the AP:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2008-04-08-internet-security-mar ket_N.htm
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Dave, 10 Apr 2008 @ 9:46am

Reasonable?
How dare someone be reasonable! You're all nazis!
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BlowURmindBowel, 10 Apr 2008 @ 10:27am

FauxNews
I don't like the FoxNews channel mostly because almost all of their anchors/hosts are obnoxious blowhards (same reason I don't like Lou Dobbs anymore). I don't really doubt Fox's credibility for the most part, I just don't like them...

But I honestly do believe that depending on the program Fox slants farther to the right than CNN does to the left. It's just that CNN is generally to the left while Fox varies from centrist to Hyper-Right depending on the topic/show/host/etc. I like that CNN is more predictable.
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- Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2008 @ 11:04am
  
  Re: FauxNews
  they have some of the hottest teleprompt readers though!
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BlowURmindBowel, 10 Apr 2008 @ 11:15am

Duh...
I suppose I should have included this in my first post, to have given it some shred of a chance of being on topic...

But yes, being that this was originally an AP article, I really have no problem with the source/credibility/etc.

And yes FoxNews does have the hottest weathersluts!

Although it was really funny when the daytime weather guy started yelling at the female mid-day desk anchor during Hurricane Katrina... (sorry I don't recally their names I'm a total CNN junkie by most peoples standards but I am bad with names.)
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Wolfy, 10 Apr 2008 @ 12:04pm

Way to get the thread off topic! Good show, Folks! (see Daily Show with John Stewart: Samantha Bee segment "News I'd like to F@%k".)
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Wolfy, 10 Apr 2008 @ 12:06pm

CORRECTED Way to get the thread off topic! Good show, Folks! (see Daily Show with John Stewart(c): Samantha Bee segment "News I'd like to F@%k".)
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BlowURmindBowel, 10 Apr 2008 @ 3:44pm

Sometimes.
Sometimes there just isn't enough topic for this many people to all be on it at the same time...

"I'll sell you my identity for $500, so long as you promise to pay my credit card bills..."

That's why stolen American identity data is so worthless lately!
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Shagger, 10 Apr 2008 @ 11:17pm

If this data is so cheap, it makes you wonder on the effectiveness of it. If a credit card number can you a couple of thousand $$$ of goods or services, wouldn't that at least give it a minimum value? Or is it that most data is useless and you have to sift through the numbers before you find one that actually works???

Shagger Green lasers rulz
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- Nasch, 11 Apr 2008 @ 11:30am
  
  Re:
  It's not about how much it's worth, it's about supply and demand. Maybe you can get a couple thousand dollars out of that credit card, but when there are hundreds or thousands of sellers with tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of credit cards to sell, and good information, etc, in other words you end up with an efficient, competitive market. Prices are driven down to marginal costs, which are low because apparently this data is so easy to get.
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  - Alana, 4 Aug 2010 @ 12:16am
    
    Re: Re:Nasch
    I am quite agree with your idea. The credit card is just the perfect expression about supply and demand. laser pointer, green laser pointer, and special designed military laser pointer would always bring you unexpected suprise for your life.
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