You keep an eye on your credit report and fastidiously pore over each and every statement to guard against identity theft and a drained bank account, and that’s good. But a new report says stolen Twitter accounts are more valuable to hackers on the black market than a stolen credit card number, so keep that password close as well.

The report is the first in a series released by the RAND Corporation, reports ZDNet, called “Markets for Cybercrime Tools and Stolen Data: Hacker’s Bazaar.”

It explains that Twitter accounts cost more on the black market than a stolen credit card in a bit of hacker Schadenfreude — because of that massive Target hack that hit up to 110 million people, the market for credit cards was flooded, causing sale values to drop. While many of those cards probably sold for a high price immediately after the breach, as time goes by, many of those cards have been deactivated and are now worthless.

A Twitter account can be used to provide access to other users’ accounts — possibly by way of spamming your pals once your credentials are hacked — and can turn into cash cows that lead to a smorgasbord of other stolen data.

Someone hacking your Twitter account could use the information gleaned from that to access your info on other sites, as well, opening lots of doors for hackers to gather even more personal data.

“Although prices range widely, RAND found hacked accounts can be worth anywhere from $16 to $325+ depending on the account type,” a rep explains.

Keep your passwords secret, and keep them safe. And remember not to use the same one across all your accounts or you’re basically handing a hacker the keys to your online kingdom.

Hackonomics: Stolen Twitter accounts ‘more valuable’ than credit cards [ZDNet]

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