Cybercrime and the value of personal data

Put simply, the underground economy is a collection of forums, chat rooms and custom-made websites that are all designed to facilitate, streamline and industrialize cybercrime. It's within these communities that cybercriminals gather to trade tools, services and victims' credentials.
There are various ways to obtain credentials. Some options are Phishing attacks, Trojan Horses and hacking into an online company database. Credentials can also be obtained through real-world activities like credit card skimming or infecting point-of-sale devices with malware.

Identity thieves operate with one thing in mind, and that is to make money. Any account type that can be cashed out in order to rake in a profit for the fraudster is a legitimate target. As hackers are always on the lookout to generate new means of income, demand may rise in the underground for new accounts and new credentials over time, which puts users at a constant risk of being targeted.

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