Stolen credit card data from Asia fetch higher prices, says study

Cybercriminals have now established a thriving underground market where illegally obtained credit card numbers and other private financial information are traded.

In its annual industry review released this month, Internet security giant Trend Micro said credit-card numbers from the Asia-Pacific region fetched the highest prices in the black market, given the region’s rising household incomes.

“Data is now a currency,” said Myla Pilao, core technology director at the Manila-based Trend Labs, owned by Trend Micro.

In its report, Trend Micro put the price of credit-card numbers stolen from Asia-Pacific users at $6 to $10 each in 2011. This was more than triple the price of credit-card numbers from United States-based customers, at $1 to $3 apiece.

Credit-card numbers from Central America, Australia and Europe were pegged at $3 to $8 each.

Pilao said the increasing adoption by Asian users of Internet and electronic banking services has given cybercriminals more opportunities to steal personal data from customers through the use of computer viruses.

“We have become a great supplier of information. Last year, the penetration of electronic banking services in the Philippines was just at 2 percent. This year, it’s at 9 percent,” Pilao said.

And since many users in the region are still not conscious of the risks involved when making transactions online, stealing money using stolen data is easier in Asia than it is in other markets like the United States.

“Cybercriminals are turning data into currency,” she said. Aside from credit-card details, Trend Micro said PayPal account details, copies of birth certificates, and even driver’s license information are also being traded in underground markets.

This year, Pilao said the price tag for data from Asia is expected to decline, due mainly to the “commoditization” of data, as more people in the continent start using the Internet.

With lower returns on every piece of information stolen, Pilao said cybercriminals are likely to work harder to get more data from users. “Because the margins are shrinking, there will be more energy in the underground community to get more data,” she said.