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According to researchers at web security firm Finjan, bank and credit card information is becoming "commoditised", with PIN codes which once commanded prices of £50 now available for £5 or £10.

New brands of personal information on the market are fetching a premium, such as patient healthcare information, business information or company personnel files. Such information is being used for insurance

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fraud or to illicitly obtain goods such as medicine.

The researchers say that organised cybercrime has a Mafia-like hierarchical structure, with "underbosses" providing Trojan infiltration software for attacks and "resellers" trading the data.

Finjan's researchers posed as buyers in online exchanges with "resellers", and were offered a menu of credit card details. Platinum, gold and corporate card details fetched the highest prices.

The cybercriminals promised the data was "fresh" and even offered a 48-hour guarantee to supply new details if the details were rejected by payment systems as stolen.

"It's like in the regular business world, when you buy a good and it doesn't work, you go back and you want to replace it," said Finjan's chief technology officer Yuval Ben-Itzhak.

"They need to build reputation, they want to show they're providing high quality data for your money so you can go back and buy from them rather than go to the other groups."