Russian Hackers getting rich from your Identity

Where's the $$$ at? Selling credit card data. Have you heard of the Russian hacking ring that raked in two and a half billion dollars? Check it out:

• Phishing attacks are lucrative for these cybercriminals.
• ATM hacks continue to increase, in part due to targeted attacks and new software.
• Smartphone attacks are on the upswing.

There are three ways criminals obtain credit card data, and selling it is enormous business. And data breaching at the point of sale has been a big issue for the past few years. POS attacks are conducted with skimming tactics or by using Trojans. Unless significant changes are made, look for POS attacks to swell up, not shrivel up.

Selling credit card information is such big business that there exist professional wholesalers who specialize in this. Ukrainian, Russiona and many in eastern Europe are some of the largest brokers of and the main suppliers of stolen card data. But the wholesalers who purchase his acquired data are also rolling in the dough.

More on the Russian Hacking Empire

• Lots of DDoS attacks
• Over a quarter of a billion dollars in the sale of nefarious products
• Spam, spam and more spam: an $841 million goldmine
• A rise in the number of crime rings, the result of the development of new ways to commit theft off of users of smartphones.
• In fact, several new crime rings have emerged this year that center on bank theft of mobile device users.

There's currently just no end in sight for the Russian hackers, and there perhaps never will be, especially since geography is a barrier to prosecution.

6 ways to watch your statements.

1. Monitor your paper statements monthly
2. Monitor your e-statments when they come in
3. Login to your credi card company's website as often as you can
4. Download your credit card company's smartphone app and check often
5. Sign up for Mint or BillGuards credit card alerts
6. Go to your credit card company's website and sign up for text and email alerts for every transaction.