Security News > 2011 > May > How Credit Card Data Is Stolen and Sold

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/card-data-is-stolen-and-sold/ By NICK BILTON Bits - The New York Times May 3, 2011 Last week, after the Sony PlayStation Network was attacked by a group of unknown hackers, Sony’s 77 million customers, along with security specialists and government officials, were surprised by the amount of information that might have been stolen from the company. But there was another group that worried about the attack: other hackers who steal credit card numbers and personal identity online and then sell and trade this information in underground markets. “We’re keeping a close eye on the Sony story as it would drastically affect the resale of other cards,” explained an experienced hacker based in Europe who declined to share his name due to the nature of his work. Kevin Stevens, senior threat researcher at the computer security firm Trend Micro, explained in an interview last week that there was a lot of discussion taking place in hacker forums about the Sony data breach. Several credit card dealers are worried that the distribution of millions of credit cards would flood the market and lower prices, he said. [...]

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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/card-data-is-stolen-and-sold/