EMC recently produced a report proving the prices of various illicitly obtained goods: credit card details, online banking accounts, and Trojan virus bot network software were just some of the items discussed. It is included in our quick round-up of useful and strangely fascinating security links, after the jump.

Cyber-Criminal’s Shopping List 
A "cyber-criminal’s shopping list" is how EMC’s September cybercrime market report was described. Law-enforcement resistant hosting services? $87 a month. Credit card data including CVV2 codes? $3 each. Scary, but fascinating.

Google Webmaster Blog
The Google Webmaster Central Blog is an essential access point for up to date information on optimizing your website for the Google search engine. Why do we like it? It includes not just in-depth tutorials and links to tools, but also great beginner-level advice and techniques that anyone can use.

Best Practices Defend Against Threats
A simple guide from Sophos that includes everything from suggested Facebook settings all the way through to a guide to compliance with the Payment Card industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).  

Guide To PHP Security
PHP is still the language of choice for web developers: it’s easy to learn and there are lots of forums and support sites online where one can pick up useful scripts and code snippets to be integrated into one’s project. In our experience though, many developers and website owners ignore PHP’s vulnerabilities and so no guide like this would be complete without a guide to PHP security.  

WordPress Security For Beginners
As blogging has become almost ubiquitous for website publishers, so WordPress has grown into the platform of choice for most people wanting to start selling online. There is lots of guidance available for someone just starting out with WordPress but this article struck us as hitting just the right note for getting beginners up to speed with their security.