IF THE STATE of the regular economy was not cause enough for concern, the findings of the just released Symantec Report on the Underground Economy are even more sobering, detailing an online underground econ omy that has matured into an efficient, global market place in which stolen goods and fraud-related services are regularly bought and sold.

In fact, by monitoring criminals offering stolen credit cards, bank account information and other stolen financial data, Symantec researchers believe hundreds of millions of dollars of potential theft tools are available at any time.

Credit card information is the most advertised cate gory of goods and services on the underground economy, accounting for 31 per cent of the total. While stolen credit card numbers sell for as little as US10c to $US25 per card, the average advertised stolen credit card limit is more than $US4000 ($6135).

Between the reporting period of 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2008, Symantec calculated that the potential worth of all credit cards advertised was a staggering $US5.3 billion.

The popularity of credit card information is arguably attributable to the many ways this information can be obtained and used for fraud; credit cards are easy to use for online shopping and it is often difficult for merchants or credit card providers to identify and address fraudulent transactions before they are completed. Also, credit card information is often sold to fraudsters in bulk, with discounts or free numbers provided with larger purchases.

“Today’s cyber criminals are thriv ing off of information they are gather ing without permission from businesses and consumers,” said Symantec Secu rity Technology and Response vice president Stephen Trilling.

“As these individuals and groups continue to devise new tools and tech niques to defraud legitimate users around the globe, protection and mit igation against such attacks must become an international priority.”

The second most common category of goods and services advertised is financial accounts, at 20 per cent of the total. While stolen bank account information sells for between $US10 and $US1000, the average advertised stolen bank account balance is nearly $40,000. Calculating the average advertised balance of a bank account, together with the average price for stolen bank account numbers, the worth of the bank accounts advertised during the reporting period was $US1.7 billion.

According to Trilling, financial account information is popular among cyber criminals because of its poten tial for high payouts and the speed at which payouts can be made. In one case, financial accounts were cashed out online to untraceable locations in less than 15 minutes.

Alarmingly, the underground economy is geographically diverse and generates revenue for cyber crim inals who range from loose collec tions of individuals to organised and sophisticated groups.

North America hosts the largest number of such servers, with 45 per cent of the total, Europe/Middle East/Africa 38 per cent, followed by Asia/Pacific with 12 per cent and Latin America five per cent.

The geographical locations of underground economy servers are constantly changing to evade detec tion, with 98 per cent of them having life spans of less than six months.

In the one year covered by the report, more than 69,000 distinct advertisers and 44 million online mes sages were monitored selling illicit credit card and financial data, but the 10 most active advertisers appeared to account for 11 per cent of the total messages posted.