How much is your identity worth?: Via New Scientist.

Like many other people, I initially missed the news about Heartland - perhaps because it was announced on the day of Barack Obama's inauguration. But my belated discovery made me wonder what would have happened to my credit card details if they had been stolen. So I called internet security company Team Cymru, based in Burr Ridge, Illinois. A few weeks later, cybercrime experts Steve Santorelli and Levi Gundert introduced me to a sprawling criminal underworld so large and pervasive that no one can control it.

This underworld is surprisingly easy to access. It consists of a network of online chatrooms and web forums where stolen information is openly traded, along with off-the-shelf software tools needed to pull off just about every kind of online scam going. "This is an economy that is worth billions of dollars," says Dean Turner of the security company Symantec in Calgary, Canada. "It's highly organised. Everything that criminals need is available for sale."

It was not always like this. In the early days, criminal hacking required advanced technical skills. But organised crime has moved in and the black market has become a service economy where anybody can buy a career in cybercrime.

As soon as Santorelli and Gundert log me onto a chatroom, messages start to appear.

[...]

Dumps are more valuable. Access to these details allows criminals to print "cloned" credit cards and shop almost anywhere. The card-printing equipment costs $20,000 to $30,000, but is available legally. If that investment is too great, traders can email the details to criminal specialist printers who will run off cards and return them by mail for just a few dollars per card.

I send a message to loopz asking about price and availability. Minutes later I get a reply: he has 10 dumps and wants $15 for each.

Read Original Article:(Via New Scientist.)