This problem is only going to get larger. And the reason, once again, is that it all comes down to one thing - MONEY. The adversaries can make money with your credentials - end of story. The buyers are called ‘Cashers’ and they live a symbiotic relationship with the ‘Phisher’. The big problem in the past was how to turn this intelligence in to cold hard cash.

Online gambling is starting to help these guys in a big way. It goes like this: The Casher picks up some great ‘dump’ of cards and then teams up with someone to do some online gambling. The Casher buys in big with the stolen credentials, loses to his cohort, and now the credit has been converted to cash.


We can call them many things (Phishers, hackers, attackers, organized crime), but let's just call them what they really are - BAD_GUYS and recognise that the GOOD_GUYS are struggling. The business is all about intelligence. They steal it from you and sell it. But what we must remind ourselves is that the game starts well before that play. The intelligence they need to begin their plan is the same information you need to defend your network and resources. You just need to be the one that is proactive in getting and using this knowledge first.