Russian cybercrime market is well-established, says report

In a report entitled “Russian Underground 101,” Japanese security software company Trend Micro claims that the cybercrime market in Russia is getting more commercial than ever, with hackers offering services for a price. Using data gathered from online forums and few articles written by actual hackers, Trend Micro was able to write a paper detailing the kinds of services that are being offered on popular cybercrime forums like antichat.ru, xeka.ru, and cardingcc.com.

Rik Ferguson, Director of Security Research and Communications at Trend Micro, says that the Russian cybercrime market is very much a well-established market. “It’s very mature. It’s been in place for quite some time. There are people offering niche services, and every niche is catered for,” Ferguson adds. The report also reveals that programming services, such as malware creation, are among the most popular products in the underground market.

The corresponding prices of the so-called professional hacking services are also interesting. For example, the report shows that you can hire someone to do a DDos attack for $30 to $70 a day or $1,200 a month. Email spams costs $10 per one million emails and Windows rootkits are priced around $292. You can even hire someone to hack a Gmail account for $162 or a Facebook and Twitter account for $130. You can read Trend Micro’s full report here.

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Web
Tags: Hacking, Security