MOST POPULAR ITEMS
1)  Credit card information - 31%
2)  Financial accounts - 20%
3)  Spam and phishing information - 19%
4)  Withdrawal service - 7%
5)  Identity theft information - 7%
6)  Server accounts - 5%
7)  Compromised computers - 4%
8)  Website accounts - 3%
9)  Malicious applications - 2%
10) Retail accounts - 1%

Credit card numbers have proved so popular among hi-tech thieves because they are easy to obtain and use for fraudulent purposes.  Many of the methods favored by cyber criminals, such as phishing schemes, database attacks and magnetic strip skimmers, are designed to steal credit card information, it said.

The existence of a ready market for any stolen data and the growing use of credit cards also helped maintain their popularity, it said.  "High frequency use and the range of available methods for capturing credit card data would generate more opportunities for theft and compromise and, thus, lead to an increased supply on underground economy servers," said the report.

The price card thieves can expect for the numbers they offer for sale also varied by the country of origin. US card numbers were the cheapest because they were so ubiquitous - 74% of all cards offered for sale were from the US.

By contrast numbers from cards issued in Europe and the Middle East commanded a premium because they were relatively rare.