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Underground economy worth millions of pounds

Cyber crooks have evolved into "professional", business-minded individuals with keen long term goals that they are prepared to patiently pursue to fruition, just like corporations, a new report has said.

These crooks have developed an underground economy worth millions of pounds and have created inventive ways to turn their illicit activities into profitable ventures, according to online security firm Symantec.

In its Report on the Underground Economy, the firm states that some of the crooks compromise the internet security of businesses and instead of looting everything in sight; they wait patiently for the cookie.

The cookie in this case is the compromised companies' payment-processing systems, which hold a treasure trove of data that they can turn into instant money in their underground networks.

According to Symantec the underground economy is now "a global market with the same supply and demand pressures and responses of any other economy" and servers and channels available to advertisers.

Between July 1st 2007 and June 30th 2008, the total value of advertised goods on these underground channels was over $276 million (£183 million), the firm estimates.

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