New research reveals just how quickly sensitive data stolen and sold online by cyber criminals can be put to nefarious use, good information to know given the recent escalation in tactics by some ransomware gangs. Specifically, a researcher conducted an experiment in which he lumped real credit card data in with dummy credit card data and dumped the whole thing onto multiple sites. It took just two hours for criminals to respond, initially “nibbling on” the data with bots and scripts. The criminals then test whether the payment card information is valid, by using a stolen card on merchant sites that automatically respond with a detailed reason for why a given card is declined. The card was eventually used at the site for a well-known retailer. Read the article at Naked Security.