A CREDIT card number for 50 US cents (72 Singapore cents). A bank account number could be yours for US$30. An entire identity consisting of name, credit card details and passwords comes even cheaper - just US$10. Yes, all these are available online, if you know where to look.

This list of items for sale by popularity were released in a 2007 Internet Security Threat report by US-based Internet security firm Symantec late last year.

Home users here may increasingly be targeted as Singapore's broadband Internet penetration continues to rise - from 62 per cent last January to 75 per cent last month, according to figures from the Infocomm Development Authority.

Experts say threats are likely to escalate as more computers here remain online for extended periods of time with broadband.

 Singaporean teacher Melissa Lu, 25, was shocked to find air tickets to Kota Kinabalu and Macau charged to her credit card last March. Over $850 worth of tickets from a regional budget airline had been charged to her - for two trips she wasn't making.

This is precisely a new security lapse that hackers have been trying to take advantage of, said Mr Anthony Lim of IBM. The director for security for Asia-Pacific said hackers are now trying to access company databases - such travel agencies or banks - through loopholes in website addresses by toggling details in the website's address. He demonstrated to my paper how it can be done - in just five minutes - if security is weak.

Experts say cyber crime is the fastest growing crime today. Said Mr Lim: "Just look at how spam or adware is used to sell sexual content, fake drugs, fake watches or online gambling. It can't only be the work of some 17-year-old schoolboy. It is the organised crime syndicates fakes."

 And the money involved is staggering. Research firm Gartner said that last year in the US alone, some 3.6 million Americans lost about US$3.2 billion to phishing attacks.

According to the Symantec report, Singapore ranks seventh in the region for having the most bots - infected computers which have software allowing others to control them.

serl@sph.com.sg