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Uber, PayPal and even Netflix accounts have become much more valuable to criminals, as evidenced by the price these stolen identifiers now fetch on the so-called "Deep Web," according to security company Trend Micro.

Last week, security firm Trend Micro reported finding another piece of ransomware based on Hidden Tear. The threat, detected as Ransom_Cryptear.B, demanded 2,000 Brazilian reals ($500) from victims using a ransom note written in Portuguese.

Last week, security firm Trend Micro reported finding another piece of ransomware based on Hidden Tear. The threat, detected as Ransom_Cryptear.B, demanded 2,000 Brazilian reals ($500) from victims using a ransom note written in Portuguese.

The report, part of a series profiling criminal undergrounds in different countries, placed Brazilian cyber-criminals just behind those in Russia and China in terms of technical expertise. And, because of their focus on financial crimes, Brazilian cyber-criminals are second only to those from Russia in their ability to attack banks and other financial institutions, Tom Kellermann, chief cyber-security officer at Trend Micro, told eWEEK.

Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at the security firm Trend Micro, is among the experts who don't anticipate a deterrent effect. "Realistically, this a model that is going to be copied," he says. "There has been an explosion in the last six months of extortion and ransomware. And the more notoriety they get for the takedown, the more copycats there will be."