Credit Card (including PIN number) - $500

Zero day exploits - upwards to $50,000

Knowing that there will always be someone out there who is willing to pay that kind of money for illegal stuff….priceless.

Not that this stuff hasn’t happened before, but the release of Vista sure has been making this stuff a lot more public. And to think back in the day the people at Microsoft wouldn’t even let security vendors look at the new OS…

According to US media, exploits that compromise computers running on Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows Vista are being auctioned off on underground forums. According to Trend Micro, up to US $ 50,000 are being offered at the websites, which resemble online auctions. In addition, exploits for other software are reportedly also being traded there, with the highest bids ranging from US $ 20,000 to 30,000 depending on how popular are the programs and how reliable the exploits. Furthermore, complete bots and Trojans can be purchased; a Trojan that allows data to be stolen can fetch US $ 1,000 to 5,000, while a bot that, say, creates a spam army can be had for US $ 5,000 to 20,000.[more]

Tags: Hackers, Piracy, Identity Theft