Dive Brief:
- Business is booming in the underground hacking market, and prices for some goods and services, including malware, are dropping in price, according to a new report from Dell SecureWorks.
- In its third annual Underground Hacker Markets Report, SecureWorks’ analysts looked at online forums and marketplaces hackers use from across the world, focusing on the Russian Underground and English-speaking marketplaces between Q3 2015 and Q1 2016.
- Hacking-as-a-service is also increasingly for sale, as cybercriminals work to boost their offerings. Unlike in past years, hackers are now advertising willingness to work on weekends and some are available 24 hours a day, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
From stolen bank account numbers to services like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, hackers can peddle almost anything, posing a constant threat for the security-conscious everywhere.
Hackers can exploit almost any security vulnerability and without concerted efforts by enterprises to ensure cyber hygiene and secure systems, an unprepared company could find its the next target.
Recent reports found that cybercriminals are coordinating across the globe, defying both language and geographic barriers. As they further coordinate, cybercriminals are developing more sophisticated families of malware.
Like any responsible retailer, some Russian hackers can offer their customers "guarantors," which temporarily hold both the money and the "product" to guarantee a fair exchange of goods and services. One such hacking service said their customers need only pay for visible results, for which the hacker would provide proof. Another hacker advertised 24/7 availability for a DDoS attack.
Some of the going rates for a hacker’s goods and services, according to the report:
- It costs roughly $500 per mailbox for a hacker to access a corporate email account.
- Remote Access Trojans cost between $5 and $10, down from between $50 and $250 in 2013.
- It costs $7 for Visa and MasterCard numbers from the U.S.
- A hacker will break into a website and steal data for $350, up from between $100 to $200 in 2014.
- You can purchase a DDoS attack at a per-hour, per-day or per-week rate. It costs between $200 and $555 for a weeklong DDoS attack. For an hour, it costs between $5 and $10.
- If you want to do it yourself, hacking tutorials cost between $20 and $40.
