WASHINGTON — A panel of experts in the international trade ofstolen consumer data said Wednesday that payment card data haslargely been eclipsed as the most valuable in the internationalmarketplace.

Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher at KasperskyLab, an international cyber security firm, told attendees at Visa'sGlobal Security Summit at the Ronald Reagan Building that paymentcard data from European breaches is worth four or five times moreon the international market than data from U.S. breaches, but thatoverall payment card data has been surpassed in value.

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The real data being sought now are things like what your highschool's mascot was and where you had your first job, Baumgartnersaid, combined with Social Security numbers and dates of birth.Byron Acohido, a technology reporter and blogger with USAToday, reminded the meeting of a recent incident where aunderground market in stolen information had its servers hacked andthe hackers discovered that the thieves had been taking SocialSecurity numbers and dates of birth from Lexus/Nexus and Dun +Bradstreet.

“This suggests that thieves might have had their fingers in thepies of some of the very largest companies for a very long time,”Acohido remarked.

The discovery has implications for the rise of cloud computing,which bring costs savings but new security concerns

“Essentially, cloud computing aggregates the data forthieves,” Baumgartner said, though he added that cloud computingcan also have strengths that could help make it a reliable resourcegoing forward.

Baumgartner and Acohido joined Donald Good, section chief forcyber operations at the FBI, in reporting increased communicationsacross different platforms and organizations to develop defensesagainst cyber theft, but that law abiding firms are notcommunicating or cooperating nearly as much as thievesare.

“Cyber thieves have become extremely efficient aboutcommunication and cooperation on an as-needed basis,” Baumgartnersaid.