Internet Underground Economy - $275 Million Business

Hackers sell stolen identities, data, pirated software and games, etc., in their own underground economy. CNET reports that the hackers use IRC channels to find the buyers.  Credit card information accounted for more than 30 percent of all of the types of goods and services sold in the Internet underground; it was the most requested category.

Hackers' chatter in IRC channels. Source: Symantec

Bank account credentials were the most commonly advertised thing for sale on underground economy with prices ranging from $10 to $1,000 depending on the balance and location of the account. Ok, who are all these hackers? Where most of these guys operate from? Russia? China?

Wrong. Most of the people uploading pirated software to be sold were in the United States, according to the report from Symantec. The U.S. was home to most of the underground economy servers (41%) followed by Romania (13%) and North America had the largest number of underground economy servers.

If Symantec knows the server locations in U.S., can’t they just shut it down with the help of law enforcement?