Sony Security Problems Could Hurt Hackers Too

As hard as it is to believe, hackers may actually suffer from Sony's massive security breach that has seen 102 million users worldwide compromised. According to a New York Times Bits blog report, the massive amount of credit card numbers being flooded into the lucrative black market could bring the price of illegal credit card sales down dramatically.

According to the NYT, hackers who resell personal info and credit cards do not look kindly on what will happen if those responsible for Sony's security breach decide to sell all of it on the black market. Typically stolen credit card numbers sell for around $5 - $10 each (according to an anonymous source familiar with the black market). If millions of new card numbers flood the market, it could bring the value down to a paltry $1 - $2 each.

"We’re keeping a close eye on the Sony story as it would drastically affect the resale of other cards," an experienced hacker based in Europe who declined to share his name due to the nature of his work told the NYT.

Kevin Stevens, a senior threat researcher at Trend Micro, said in an interview last week that there is a lot of discussion in hacker forums about the Sony data breach. Several "credit card dealers" expressed concern that the influx of millions of credit cards would flood the market and lower prices, he said.

I would like to say that I feel bad for these people, but I don't. It should also be noted that buying this data right now would be like buying the Mona Lisa a day after it was stolen. In other words: many eyes are watching all over the world.

Source: NYT by way of Kotaku