We all know that the underground industry sells all kinds of material, starting with full identity information and ending with stolen credit cards which allow the so-called hackers to run illegal activities. According to a research conducted by security company Secunia, there were no less than 711,912 threats discovered in 2007, compared with 2006 when 'only' 125,243 were spotted. This means 2007 came with an increase of 468 percent, which is absolutely huge since we're talking about the security of our computers.

"Avoiding the dark alleys of the Internet was sufficient advice in years past," said Stephen Trilling, vice president, Symantec Security Technology and Response. "Today's criminal is focused on compromising legitimate Web sites to launch attacks on end-users, which underscores the importance of maintaining a strong security posture no matter where you go and what you do on the Internet."

But what's worse is that the underground material can be bought at extremely low prices since a full identity is available at around one dollar, according to Symantec. In the past, there were reports that informed a full cracked software program could be bought for around 3 euros in the Russian underground market so it seems like prices tend to get lower as the time passes by.

"Remaining vigilant and informed on the latest evolutions in the threat landscape is critical to maintaining a strong security posture," said Adriano Diaz, vice president and information security manager, BankUnited. "Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report continues to provide us with critical information on the most current online security trends, helping us better protect our information."

Identity theft remains one of our main concerns and let's be honest, organizations and companies around the world are not quite helpful when talking about it. For instance, the HSBC banking group has just lost a disk containing information of about 370,000 consumers while HMRC lost two CDs with details belonging to approximately 25 million people in November 2007.