Everyone is probably asking themselves the question: How much do hackers earn or how do hackers start making money? Although a pentester is not exactly a hacker, it is the first step and I’ll tell you it’s the most correct one. We often see on the box that some hacker hacked the database of some company or stole millions and so on. Today I will dispel your illusions about how hackers and pentesters actually make money.
- Hack and steal
- They do it legally, almost legally.
Below I have described the methods on how to become a hacker and how they earn money. After reading, you will understand what it comes down to.
There are four main steps to becoming a hacker.
And so these are 4 levels of steepness. These steps occur as follows:
Collection of information
The more you know about a goal, the easier it will be for you to influence it. Light influence, in turn, will allow you to take advantage of receiving more detailed information, more influence and more information and so on and so forth until you, well, learn everything about this goal! That is, you become a partner in his life because you know everything about the goal!
Scanning
First, the information is collected, now you must find out the information available at that moment. This is achieved by scanning. It is used to find out whether a host is on the network, that a port is open, and then find a vulnerability or structural weakness if you can. No system is invincible! Because there is kryptonite for every superman. Scanning, roughly speaking, is the system’s kryptonite.
Sniffing
Involves finding weaknesses and looking out for whatever you can of system vulnerabilities. Looking for system passwords, usernames, secrets is usually something that a person hides from other eyes. IN Kali Linux Wireshark, Ettercap, etc. have sniffing methods.
Learn this and companies will ask you to correct their shortcomings, and this is a lot of money.
Operation
Now comes the recruiting stage! You know information, system weaknesses and passwords. It's time to put everything into action. Everything that the attacker collected in the last 3 steps is used to attack systems or organizations. His triumph will be when the hack is carried out and he can tell the company “You are weaklings”, and then companies ask for advice on how to fix it, and then the money and fame flows in.
“Nothing in the world is invulnerable, the illusion of invincibility is used on people to make them look the other way.”
There are a lot of malware on the Internet that, if handled correctly, bring very good money. In particular, when a user becomes infected with a virus, the Nth amount of money is stolen from WebMoney and transferred to another wallet.Also, the topic of a Trojan that sends SMS to paid numbers from USB modems.
Such a business can easily bring in 1500$ per day at minimal cost.
Bays for various details
Let's say you have a botnet, a lot of bots filled with business traffic. Accordingly, there are many accounts for payment systems, but draining money yourself will take a lot of time, and besides, not many people know how to do it. Basically, in such situations, people look for a partner who is involved in withdrawing funds. This is called a pour - for a certain percentage, a person cashes out a sum of money and transfers most of it to the pourer.You can also see advertisements for bays, but this should be perceived a little differently. The person simply transfers funds to your account for 50% of their value. You pay before adding funds.
Virus making
Virus maker- a person who writes malware (Trojans, rootkit caps, cryptors, etc.). The earnings of such specialists are about 4.000$-10.000$ 21:56:36 8MyP3uk Passive hacking
I consider the following topics to be passive hacking:
All this little thing can bring up to 2000$
monthly!
Moreover, such people are mostly resellers and it is not possible to track them. Thus they often remain in the shadows. Selling experience
Many people online sell courses/manuals, conduct webinars on various topics, etc. These people are selling you their experience. Let’s say you want to learn something, self-education will take too much time, but by participating in any webinar you will immediately reach a level no lower than average. I won’t name the cost of webinars; it varies everywhere.
10:01:45
5
MyP3uk Dockering
Dockers
- sellers who sell documents. An advanced docker will easily issue you an individual entrepreneur/private enterprise, can get you a visa to any country, provide you with an offshore account in a foreign bank, or can even provide you with an entire offshore company!
It all depends on your wallet size. Only they themselves know how much they earn. For example, a scan of a set of docks ( home page passports and residence permits, income certificate, TIN, honey. polis, water right) costs about 200-250$
.
An offshore company in the Seychelles is worth RUR 50,000. And an individual entrepreneur/private enterprise will cost you 400$
.
Dockerization is quite a profitable business, but you need a lot of documents to start, and to assemble them you need channels...
As soon as I have an extra 15 minutes, I’ll write about the types of scams. I think this also applies to business.
18:41:13
5
oeyii Drop farming
Dropovd
- a person or woman who breeds drops (denominations)
Drop - a person who either in a clear mind becomes a drop in order to take part in not entirely legal affairs, or is plunged into it through SI, divorce, or concealing certain details of what he will be involved in.
Drop leaders are usually smart people and have excellent skills in espionage, communication psychology, seduction and brainwashing. They create drops for some of the following topics:
- Service of nominee directors (nominees)
- Bays, accepting staff, opening bank accounts
- Registration of any property, bank cards, accounts
- Hanging loans, auto loans and mortgages
Universal drop guides (those who breed drops for any purpose, and who have more than 1000 drops in their database)- Finding such a drop guide is very rare. As a rule, they work with a certain circle of frequent “buyers”
A good dropmaster, who has, say, 30 non-adjustable and 20 adjustable drops in his collection, will be able to earn a month from $3000 minimum (if the market is good, and only by providing them for a specific direction)
A generalist dropmaker who provides drops for any need in different countries earns about $ 30.000 per month or more. 20:19:36 6
MyP3uk Kidalovo online
Ripper(from English R.I.P.- lazy, asshole) - a fraudster who is trying in one way or another to deceive his/his partners, thereby luring them out of some things useful to him.
I have scammed a lot on the internet, I think they can be divided into several groups:
Now about each group in more detail.
Carding scammers- they often pretend to be cool carders or entire offices of carders, and try to foist you off by any means" plastic for cashing", cardboard, equipment and all other related tools, which they, of course, do not have and never had. Basically, in carding they are familiar only with general concepts and then from articles whose authors are those who are not involved in carding, so they are eliminated when using slang. They are also very keen on money, let’s say if you offer 50% of the price for their product - they will happily agree. Be careful - there are plenty of such individuals on the Internet!
Spinognaws- these are such crazy guys who often ask respectable sellers for something “for review”, and then rush off with another portion of freebies. For ordinary users they are not dangerous in any way, but for sellers they pose, although not a serious, but still a threat, one might even say, not a threat, but an untidiness, because giving away goods is also not very desirable...
Homeless people- a special individual! This type is dangerous because they “represent” a wide range of “services”, so they can scam you without looking back. They don’t give a damn about their reputation, there were cases when a guy cheated ~17 people for a ridiculous amount on Achat - 1 ruble ! It is these individuals who are the moral leaders of the Homeless.
To avoid being scammed, you should work through guarantors and trusted sellers. 23:35:57 4
07.06.2018
The well-known saying that “he who owns information controls the world” is more relevant than ever in the 21st century. IT specialists rule the roost today - we read, first of all, the information that they promote in search engines; Before making a purchase, look for information about it on the Internet. Movies, books, programs - today few people go to the store to buy them, preferring to download it all from numerous Internet sites. The dependence on information technology today is such that the closure of a site that distributed pirated content was the main news of last week.
He admits that the criminal will never be able to “identify himself with certainty.” However, due to the hacking group's technique, methods, capabilities and motivation for the attack, it was "very likely" that the group targeted Russian servers, and it was "very likely" that the government knew in Moscow, Lee said.
The Kremlin says he is the victim of 'village' hysteria
The fact that hacker attacks can never be proven is something the Kremlin always uses to deny any responsibility. He claims that he is only a victim of “Russophobic” hysteria in cyberspace. Vladimir Bukovsky and other dissidents who they believe were exploited by the Kremlin to exploit so-called "compromises" are being deported to Western European investigators and courts, who are demanding charges with clear evidence that they had nothing to do with the materials.
Unfortunately, along with the development of the Internet, computer criminals appeared. Using “ex.ua” as an example, one can evaluate their capabilities: the websites of government agencies were blocked for almost a week. “Today” found out whether such power is dangerous for Ukrainians in case of malicious intent.
HACKERS VS LAW ENFORCEMENT
If law enforcement agencies are able to use certain methods of influence against ordinary criminals (detain, arrest, confiscate equipment), then the usual methods of work of security forces are, as a rule, powerless against the cyber mafia.
In Russia itself, “compromises” have played a significant role in a number of cases involving politically connected entrepreneurs. In the 1990s, the Kremlin played dirty games with both President Boris Yeltsin and his opponents. However, in the era of President Vladimir Putin, attractive videos and other aggravating and highly probable materials are used exclusively to discredit the president's opponents.
Skuratov began investigating corruption, involving people with connections to the Kremlin. All it takes to shut it down is for national television to broadcast a video showing a man very similar to Skuratov in bed with two young women.
For example, last spring, the Ukrainian police proudly announced that they had closed the largest website that distributed pornographic products. And even on TV they showed live footage of the seizure of the servers on which the porn was posted. Moreover, the police even threatened users that they now have the opportunity to track those who used this site and bring criminal cases against such users for distributing pornographic products. Surely the head of the cybercrime department even expected to receive an award for such work - after all, the largest tracker in RuNet. By the way, the cost of written translation also plays a very important role in determining the final salary, which ranges from several hryvnias to tens of hryvnias, depending on the complexity, text and tasks.
Vladimir Putin then publicly stated that the man in the video was Skuratov. Although most people thought it was the secret service. Skuratov himself had to go to his office. And so the investigation into corruption in the Kremlin ended. Then Yeltsin, Putin was named prime minister with his gratitude and chose him as his successor in the Kremlin.
The claim that Kremlin opponents, as well as Western Europeans who criticize Russia, are sexually abusive and pedophiles is a recurring refrain from Russian propaganda. Russia Irina Frolova, ex-wife of Nora Bjorn Mikael Bergseth, recently lost her trial over who will be awarded custody of their child. She then appeared on Russian television, claiming that her Norwegian husband once dressed their four-year-old son as "like Putin" and then sexually abused him.
However, only a few days passed, and this site resumed its work. And on the servers seized by the police, there were not files with porn, but only torrents - files with information for exchanging porn films. In fact, the porn server received free large-scale advertising throughout Ukraine.
The current situation with the “ex” site is somewhat similar. The only value for the owners was domain name, and they were ready to donate the seized servers (the estimated price of a data center of 200 servers, according to the experts we interviewed, is about a million dollars). The site resumed its work without them. At first, most of the files were inaccessible, but every day more and more information is restored.
Putin’s opponents sometimes acted in exactly the same way. British investigators concluded it was likely a killing ordered by the Russian secret service and approved by the Kremlin. On the so-called "dark web", the Internet gray area where special software and an authorization code are required to log in, Russian hackers openly offer contraband pedophile content to the site in order to discredit its owner.
They say that while it is possible to ruin a person's personal career, as well as his company's, and states: "If you want to arrange for someone to be portrayed as a user of child porn, that's not a problem." He even puts a price on his “work,” in Bitcoin, of course.
That is, as in the case of the porn site, the goal of law enforcement officers was not achieved: the site only received free advertising. And pirated content has spread and continues to spread. And the police and the government suffered image losses.
FREE EXCHANGE?
IT specialists interviewed by Segodnya say that the exchange of pirated content is an entire sector of the shadow economy. And to believe that programs and films are free for users in every sense of the word is naive. “People who distribute pirated programs do not do it out of love for humanity, they make money from it,” says Dmitry Shymkiv, CEO of Microsoft Ukraine. According to him, very often attackers “understaff” pirated versions software that turns the computer of the user who installed the pirated software into a “zombie” for use in botnets (to attack servers).
The amount corresponds to approximately six hundred US dollars. He concluded that he was probably Russian, or at least a Russian-speaking hacker. He also confirmed that the price quoted represents a normal indicator for reputational damage. In the case of Vladimir Bukovsky and other critics, the Kremlin suffered greatly.
Bukovsky is angry that Western European countries, which demand clear evidence in court and are strictly guilty in criminal investigations, cannot see through the dirty tricks of a regime that is notorious for unfair practices and producing false evidence. They can send the West against the West,” Bukovsky concludes laconically.
Denis Terebiy, director of the network technologies department of the IT company Aikuzhn, agrees with him. “When a user does not want to pay for a product, he often becomes the product himself,” says the expert.
Owners of a file-sharing service, at best, make money from advertising or by increasing the speed of downloading files; at worst, they infect users’ computers with malware that allows a hacker to obtain data from the user’s computer or send spam from it. Often both happen at the same time.
Also read the first part of the report. Hackers are starting to make money in new ways. Vir can encrypt them, and then the attackers demand ransom from people in the order of thousands of crowns. Once the amount is paid, they promise to hand over a key that will reopen the data.
Avoid this by using a secure computer and being careful online. However, the best thing to do is backup copy data. A year ago it was more of a curiosity. Now we are starting to deal with a problem that is moving around the world. Hackers don't attack cascade just for ordinary users, they also choose schools, universities or ordinary companies. In companies this makes sense; their data largely depends on their very existence. They are so willing to pay for them.
Today, cybercriminals are no longer isolated amateurs. They are organized into structures that have funding and specific goals. Highly qualified programmers who have the necessary resources and sufficient time to develop programs are involved in the creation and distribution of malicious programs.
Information has become almost a gold mine for hackers. They are interested not only in financial information, but also general information about users. Possessing such data is very beneficial for hackers, as it allows them to conduct attacks and spam campaigns in a more targeted manner. For example, an offer to buy products is sent to 500 thousand email addresses. Even if only one in a thousand responds, that’s already 500 new orders. Now imagine that the spammer’s database contains not 500 thousand, but, say, 70 million addresses...
Information security experts give the example of the Rustock botnet. The network sent out 14 billion (!) spam messages every day until it was neutralized by the US police in the spring of 2011.
SPIES: HOW A BOTNET WORKS
Botnet owner. Makes a profit from using other people's PCs
Bots are programs that imitate a person when working in a data network. The first such programs were created back in the 1980s and were quite harmless. However, already in the late 1990s, attackers began installing this kind of software on users’ computers for specific selfish purposes: collecting confidential information, simulating human work, searching for information vulnerabilities in the company’s corporate network.
Because the user does not hack the computer by downloading something, but by simply visiting the website. Hackers, in addition to scam sites, use this dangerous code to deploy legitimate sites whose security they can breach. This is not the only way to make money. Hackers can legally make money through their illegal activities.
All you need to do is to set up your account on the said company's website and send relevant messages. Time to show how to steal money “legally” using phones. Premium calls may be charged up to $1.00 per minute.
MECHANISM OF INFECTION. Typically, a PC user downloads malware on your computer yourself - either as part of some free or hacked program downloaded from a file hosting service. The second option is infection of the computer browser or the carelessness of the user who downloads the program onto his computer by accidentally or unknowingly clicking on the link offered to him on a social network or Internet pager (for example, ICQ).
Telecom operators generate revenue from premium numbers. This way, you can get a fair amount of money for your premium numbering service. Around the world, this method is charged for tax advice, minor legal advice or computer setup advice. However, more and more premium numbers are being used to attract subscribers and even rip them off. Hackers also use this method of downloading "free" from victims of their attacks.
There are many methods for such “unwanted” activity. These more sophisticated viruses do this quietly, sending 1-2 messages per month rather than at the highest price. The victim of such a hacker is only aware when his telecom bill is due or his prepaid account is depleted.
EXTERNAL SIGNS. The program disguises itself as a system process and does not manifest itself in any way. Until the owner of the botnet gives a command, for example, to attack a specific site. Often in this case, the computer begins to “slow down” greatly, and the Internet becomes slow. Or it starts behaving strangely, for example, rebooting spontaneously. Moreover, these types of programs are disguised so well that the antivirus does not see them - only reinstalling the operating system returns the previous operating speed.
Method remote access. The method is to first connect to the phone number you are calling and then send the phone number you want to call. This method is legally used in many situations. Once upon a time, you could connect to the Internet.
To this day, this method is used to make cheap phone calls. However, this method can also be used by hackers. Simply set up the victim's mobile phone to first connect to the phone number you are dialing and then dial the number you want to call.
But often bots show virtually no signs of themselves, so users of infected PCs are convinced that their computers are free of malware. Until it turns out that his friends started receiving strange messages from his social network account and email. And the Internet provider did not send a cosmic invoice for excess traffic or did not block access to the Internet for the reason that too much information suddenly began to flow from the computer.
A special teleinformation system, receiving a call from the victim's phone, receives the Premium number, receives the information sent over the phone, and establishes a regular dial-up connection. A hacker's profit is easy to calculate. Since the intrusion is already illegal, hackers use premium numbers for operators outside Poland and often outside Europe. As a result, the victim pays for calls to any African country.
It is important that you do not accumulate too much money in your prepaid account. It's better to top up your account before making a long call than to lose all the money you have in your prepaid account. On at the moment a hacker can relax in peace in the Canary Islands, checking every day whether his hacker system has earned the correct amount for his permanent stay in this place.
BOT-NET GOALS. Just two years ago, the computers of Ukrainian users were used mainly to organize DDOS attacks and send spam. Today, with the development of electronic shopping, bots spy in order to obtain payment card information.
WHAT USER DATA ARE HACKERS INTERESTED IN?
Cybercriminals are looking for personal information, social media accounts, and credit card numbers.
This is an attack on computer system or network service to prevent the action by taking over all free resources running simultaneously on multiple computers. The computers most often used to carry out attacks are controlled by special software.
Data theft from 500 million accounts. Americans accuse Russian spies
What does it look like and how much does it cost?
Hackers offer a convenient website where customers, after registering, can choose the solution that suits them, make payments and receive reports about the attacks they have carried out. The cost of an attack depends on many factors, including its type, source, duration and location.1. Accounts on social networks. If a hacker gains access, he immediately changes the passwords. Maximum personal information is extracted from the account for a further attack on the user’s finances. In addition, accounts are used to flood comments under articles in online media.
2. Email. Often the user uses his email to contact the bank, or the password is the same as for accessing a credit card. You can also send spam from email and infect the maximum number of computers of this user's friends. These computers are then used for DDoS attacks.
Powerful data leak from websites
Another important factor affecting cost is the type of victim. There is, however, another scenario that could bring more profit to cybercriminals. The ransom amount could be equivalent to thousands of dollars in Bitcoin, meaning that the profit from a single attack could exceed 95 percent. In fact, blackmailers don't even need to have the resources to carry out such an attack - sometimes the threat alone is enough.
Kevin treats with green tea. In his suits and shirts, Kevin is far from the stereotypical image of a hacker, but he recently returned from work and has not yet had time to change. Kevin also became the subject of the article, and partly the idol of his youth, the legendary Kevin Mitnitz, before whom the Internet was shaking in recent years. For dozens of intrusions into the computers of large American corporations, Mitnik has been behind bars for more than four years.
3. Mobile number. It is not valuable on its own, but in combination with the rest of the collected information it helps to access finance on a credit card. Today, it is technically easy to make a clone of a mobile phone and SIM card, and most user identification programs in payment systems are based on confirmation of payment via SMS.
4. Passport data/identification code/photo. In case of collusion with a bank employee, having such data, you can issue a fraudulent loan or other obligations to the person.
5. Personal correspondence/photos/videos. There are cases around the world where users were blackmailed by disseminating discreditable information via the Internet.
6. Payment card details. They make clones of them, which are then used to pay for purchases abroad. The invoice is sent to the owner of the card that was hacked.
Data: Today experts, Microsoft, Hacker magazine
ATTACK ON GOSSITES
Website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Suffered from a botnet attack on infected computers
Last week, some Ukrainian government websites were unavailable after prolonged DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks. As Segodnya managed to find out, the Ministry of Internal Affairs server was overloaded with an incredible number of requests (140 thousand per second), which were generated by a large international botnet (most of the infected computers that attacked government sites are located abroad).
In addition, some Ukrainian users deliberately used specialized software to overwhelm the servers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Administration. In particular, the LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) program and its analogues were used for the attack. The principle of operation of such software is that it turns the user’s computer into a source of false requests directed to the attacked site. And the program itself does not even require installation on a computer - its online version is available on the Internet.
It is possible to protect a server from such an attack, but to do this you need to buy specialized equipment, which is very expensive (to protect one data center you need to spend about $100 thousand). Obviously, the state did not see the point in protecting sites for users from themselves. At the same time, the government websites themselves were not hacked - only users who did not gain access to the information posted on this site were affected. For example, about the reception schedule of officials, telephone numbers and addresses, legislative acts.
Accordingly, the motives of those Ukrainians who “charged” the software to attack government websites are difficult to understand. Especially in light of the fact that they themselves gave the malware access to their computer. It is impossible to say now how attackers will use it in the future. But the potential risk is there.
DDOS PRICE: $2 THOUSAND/HOUR
Hackers. Make good money by blocking websites
“I’ll crash a competitor’s website with a guarantee. From $25 per hour." There are quite a lot of announcements of this kind on specialized programmer forums. Just for fun, we tried to “order” the Cabinet of Ministers website and sent a request to the email specified in the ad.
In the response letter it was said that the indicated $25 was only suitable for “overwhelming” a weak server. But to attack a server of such a level as the Cabinet of Ministers, you need to spend at least $2 thousand per hour, and several thousand infected computers are involved. Payment - bank transfer to the account indicated by the hacker - the owner of the botnet. Moreover, since we are talking about a large amount, the hacker proposed to transfer money in small parts every 10 minutes, during which the ordered server is unavailable.
Taking into account the fact that state sites were attacked for almost a week, about $700 thousand were spent to take them down. “Most likely, the attackers used their own botnet,” the Kyiv IT company Softline explained to Segodnya (Segodnya). developer of websites for government agencies). Do the owners of the file hosting service also own bots?
To protect yourself, you need to follow a few simple tips.
As we have already said, it is recommended to install an exclusively licensed operating system - today it costs about 800 UAH. In addition, a licensed Windows OS often comes bundled with a new computer (installed on it). Of course, you can download a pirated copy for free, but it is not safe.
PC SETUP. The first action that the user needs to take after installing the OS is installing an antivirus. There is no need to download a pirated version - today antivirus developers offer a free trial version for home users for a year or more (for example, this is the policy of Avast, Comodo and many others).
Modern antiviruses work in such a way that they allow you to block programs that access the Internet unauthorized. In addition, when any program tries to make changes to the system, the antivirus sends a notification about this - if you do not know such a program, it is better to prohibit it from any incomprehensible actions.
NETWORK SAFETY. When installing free programs (for example, a torrent client), they ask whether to install additional browser add-ons - it’s better not to do this. And the browser itself needs to be prohibited from transmitting user data to sites.
Be careful when visiting suspicious sites, especially when strangers provide links to them, for example, on ICQ.
Leave a minimum of truthful information about yourself when registering on various sites. And do not use the same password.
The biggest danger is social networks. Under no circumstances should you disclose the degree of connection with friends, leave real contacts, and so on. For example, there is a known case of a payment card being hacked, the owner of which was secret question I chose my mother’s maiden name and indicated it on the social network.
You also need to be careful with photos: it is better to display an avatar or a photo where it is difficult to make out a face for everyone to see. It’s better to either not post other photos, or set up the network so that only a limited circle of friends can see them.
It is impossible to take everything into account. But this will reduce the risk significantly.
Many users are interested in what ways hackers make money. The prevailing stereotypes boil down to hacking of banking websites, after which millions of dollars flow into the hackers’ accounts. This opinion about hackers has developed thanks to the “efforts” of the media, which pay special attention to such cases.
The main types of legal earnings for hackers:
- Publishing activities;
- Search for vulnerabilities in the security systems of large companies;
- Consulting activities.
Illegal hacking methods of earning money:
Legal earnings of hackers
First, let's talk about “white hat” hacking methods. We all know that a hacker is, first of all, an excellent programmer. The main specialization of hackers is solving global issues: writing system codes or creating drivers. In other words, hackers are systems programmers. The problem is that the modern market needs application programmers more, while the earnings of systems engineers are much lower.
A hacker can earn decent money by publishing scientific articles. Many specialized publications are willing to pay high fees to competent specialists. But there is a problem here too - a system programmer practically does not know how to express his thoughts in words that other people can understand.
The next legal way of earning money available to hackers is hacking local networks. This type of work is carried out on behalf of a company that is interested in finding a weak point in its security system.
Having received such an order, a hacker can not only make decent money, but also demonstrate his skills to the maximum. The contract does not limit the hacker in the choice of tools and methods of hacking - both software and technical methods hacking It is allowed to secretly install video and sound recording devices, enter into contact with company representatives, etc.
Using such methods, the hacker makes every effort to detect weak points in the existing protection system. Moreover, it is completely uncritical for management - this is a technical, software gap, or information leakage occurs due to the fault of the human factor. The hacker’s task is to find an opportunity to obtain secret information and provide the company with an algorithm for eliminating such a “leak.” It is difficult to say about the amounts of remuneration under such contracts - they are always negotiated individually. But one thing is clear: serious companies do not save money on their security.
From the previous method follows another way for a hacker to make legal money. These are paid consultations. Of course, for these ways to make money, the hacker must have a “name” in certain circles. But such methods allow you to earn decent money without conflicting with the law.
Illegal ways for hackers to make money
You will be surprised, but in fact there are not so many illegal ways to make money by hacking on the Internet. Let's return to stereotypes - hacking banking systems in order to transfer certain amounts to other accounts. In reality, this is extremely rare. The fact is that only in movies, hacking a banking system is a matter of a few minutes. In fact, to carry out such an operation, it is not enough to have the necessary set of technical tools and be a great system programmer. Information is required that can only be obtained from bank employees. To do this, you need to bribe or blackmail the person who owns it, or install spy equipment in his office.
Such activities are closer to spying than to hacking. And hackers, like true system programmers, don’t want to deal with this. Therefore, in real life Banking systems are more often broken not by hackers, but by ordinary crooks equipped with the necessary equipment. Hackers don’t like to mess with banks for another reason - such a crime rarely goes unsolved, since there is a lot of money behind it. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will be able to avoid punishment, no matter how you play it safe. The intelligence services today also employ good specialists, equipped with cutting-edge technology.
The following illegal way of earning money will be more attractive to a hacker. The point is that it contains less risk, and the earnings can be quite comparable to hacking banking system. This method involves surreptitiously penetrating the local networks of large corporations and stealing valuable information from them. This could be incriminating evidence on leading employees, information about their corruption, or documentation on promising developments. The main thing is that the stolen data has value for competing companies. Such information is also valued in amounts with many zeros, but the risk is much less. After all, it is not necessary for anyone in the victim company to find out about the fact of data theft. But there is a danger. Moreover, in this case, the hacker should not be afraid law enforcement agencies, but “brothers” hired by the security service of a company that has lost important information.
And another way to make money by hacking comes down to hacking paid programs. In order for the amount of money earned in this way to be decent, you need to work as a team. Once hacked, the programs are sold to companies that make pirated copies for sale on underground markets.
For clarity, we will collect all the information in the final table.
| Hacking Methods | Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal | Creation | Legal method of making money | Not every programmer can write in accessible language |
| Hacking by contract | Interesting, legal, profitable | It's difficult to get an interesting contract | |
| Consultations | Legal, interesting | You must first get a “name” | |
| Criminal | Hacking corporate networks | Profitable | Criminal liability, danger of gang violence |
| Hacking programs | You can earn good money | Criminal liability, need a team | |
| Bank hacking | Profitable | Dangerous, criminal liability, high risk of being caught |
The income of the organizers of a ransomware attack is an order of magnitude less than the damage they cause. But the cheapness and availability of malware provide hackers with good profitability.
Attack computer ransomware virus BadRabbit turned out to be much more modest than its predecessors - WannaCry in May and NotPetya in June. " Bad Bunny" blocked information systems Odessa airport, Kyiv metro, Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Russian news agency Interfax and online newspapers Fontanka. ESET reported that BadRabbit also tried to infect computers in Bulgaria (10.2% of attacks), Turkey (6.4%), Japan (3.8%) and other countries (2.4%). However, the vast majority of attacks were repulsed by security systems.
Just a few hours after the start of the attack, the virus was analyzed by almost all the largest companies in the field of Internet security. Experts from ESET, Proofpoint and Kaspersky Lab found that BadRabbit was distributed under the guise of fake Adobe Flash updates and installers.
Analysts from the Russian company in the field of cybercrime investigation Group-IB reported that " Bad Rabbit is a modified version of NotPetya with errors in the encryption algorithm corrected." The NotPetya ransomware virus, in turn, is a modification of WannaCry, created based on the EternalBlue hacker program, which was developed by the United States National Security Agency and then stolen by hackers.
Damage and benefit
According to Intel estimates, the total number of infected computers exceeded 530 thousand. In particular, the UK National Health Care System, the Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Russian Railways, Sberbank, Megafon and VimpelCom suffered from virus attacks. WannaCry encrypted users’ files; for decryption, the extortionists demanded to pay $600 in Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
According to American experts, the extortionists received only 302 payments totaling $128,000. At the same time, the total damage to companies subjected to WannaCry attacks exceeded a billion dollars.
The extortionists received a total of 302 payments totaling $128,000. At the same time, the total damage to companies subjected to WannaCry attacks exceeded a billion dollars.
On June 27, 2017, attacks by the NotPetya ransomware virus began. As with WannaCry, the hackers demanded a ransom to restore the computer's functionality, but this time only $300 in Bitcoin.
More than 20 thousand companies in 60 countries on all continents were affected by the NotPetya attack, but more than 70% of the total number of virus infections occurred in Ukraine. The ransomware's revenue amounted to about $10,000, while FedEx and Moller-Maersk alone estimated their damage from the virus attack at $300 million each.
As for BadRabbit, both the losses of the affected companies and the income of the hackers, apparently, were close to zero.
Extortion on the cheap
The WannaCry – NotPetya – BadRabbit family of ransomware viruses is no longer dangerous, and now hackers will have to develop something completely new. There is no doubt that they will do this, especially since creating a ransomware virus is much easier than, for example, a banking Trojan. Thanks to this, in particular, the creation of ransomware is one of the most profitable areas of hacker activity.
Moreover, as Positive Technologies experts found out, the “ransomware-as-a-service” model is increasingly spreading among attackers, in which the authors software are not organizers of attacks, but make money by selling or renting viruses to criminal groups. For example, the developer of the Petya virus asks for 25 to 85% of victims' payments, and another ransomware virus, Karmen, is sold on the black market for $175.
Ransomware developers are not the organizers of the attacks, but make money by selling or renting viruses to criminal groups.
The source code of the ransomware that attacked MongoDB databases late last year with a ransom demand of 0.2 to 1 bitcoin was sold on the black market for just $200, along with a list of 100,000 IP addresses of unprotected databases and a scanner for search for new victims. According to experts, the total profit of hackers from using this program could exceed $6 million.
This year, ransomware viruses have become the undisputed champions in the number of computer infections. In addition to the aforementioned top three, this spring the Jaff family of ransomware, distributed through PDF documents, caused a lot of problems for computer owners. However, amid the hype around WannaCry, the media ignored this virus.
In September, according to the Israeli virus protection company Check Point, the Locky ransomware, which began spreading in February 2016, returned to the top ten most active malware.
Among other leaders this year, experts note the Adylkuzz8 virus, which infected many computers and used their computing power to mine cryptocurrency. “Controlled computing power allowed the hacker to earn about $2,000 a day,” Positive Technologies experts report.
Information overload
Stealing credentials is now second most popular among hackers. 16% of hacker attacks are aimed at this (introducing viruses - 38%). Cybercriminals either sell the information they receive on the black market or demand a ransom for it.
However, opportunities for making money in this area are rapidly declining. Thus, as a result of an attack on the American mobile operator U.S. Cellular hackers were able to steal the personal information of 126,761,168 Americans. This entire database was later put up for sale for just $500. In one Russian private clinic, IP web cameras were hacked; access to them was sold for only 300 rubles.
“We are seeing a decrease in the cost of personal data, which is probably due to the oversaturation of the market and the fact that information ceases to be unique, because it has been stolen for quite a long time,” notes a review by Positive Technologies. “In addition, it should be noted that in At the end of March, US President Donald Trump lifted the ban on the collection and transfer of personal data (location information, history) by providers search queries and the time a user spends on a particular web page), which was introduced by Barack Obama."
“We are seeing a decline in the value of personal data, which is likely due to the oversaturation of the market and the fact that information is no longer unique, because it has been stolen for a long time.”
From a review by Positive Technologies
However, the most skilled hackers manage to make good money by stealing personal data. In the spring, hackers stole the credentials of users of two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Bithumb and Tapizon. Having hacked into the accounts of 31,800 users, the attackers were then able to gain access to their accounts, stealing a total of more than $6 million.
In Russia, a hacker obtained data mailbox one of the users began to blackmail the owner, threatening to register web resources on behalf of the victim, where he would publish pornography or sell drugs. Such a pressure tool can be quite effective and force victims to pay - to protect their reputation, as well as under the threat of criminal liability
The third place among the favorite tools of hackers today is occupied by the so-called social engineering - experts call it that different ways luring users to fake sites in order to lure out their credit card and bank account information. For example, at the beginning of the year, attackers used spam mailings to lure potential victims to fake PayPal pages and extort their bank card information.
In Russia, hackers sent victims notices of traffic police fines under the guise of a notification from the State Services portal. The authenticity of the letter was confirmed by the e-government logo, and the letter itself allegedly contained a photograph of the offender’s car. When trying to open a photo, the victim was redirected to a fake website that required entering data email.
Blackmail Request
Experts' greatest concern is computer security today cause DDoS attacks, the strength of which is beyond last year has increased many times over. The purpose of such an attack is to disable the site by submitting a large number of requests. DDoS attacks are used mainly for blackmail, since blocking the website of an online retailer or bank can bring multimillion-dollar losses to its owner.
It is difficult to estimate the scale of income in this area of the hacker industry, since companies whose activities were disrupted due to DDoS attacks try not to advertise it. Positive Technologies notes that in the spring, the Skype service was unavailable for users from Europe and part of the USA for two days.
It is believed that the reason for this was a DDoS attack, for which the hacker group CyberTeam took responsibility. It is unknown whether the hackers received any ransom from Skype or not.
Often, criminals will launch a weak attack and demand a ransom, threatening that next time it will be stronger, but this turns out to be a bluff. Such horror stories are being used more and more often.
In the summer, five South Korean banks at once became victims of blackmailers who demanded about 315 thousand dollars, threatening a massive DDoS attack.
In the summer, five South Korean banks (KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, KEB Hana Bank and NH Bank) became victims of blackmailers who demanded about 315 thousand dollars, threatening a massive DDoS attack. Since no violations were observed in the work of these financial institutions, either the threats turned out to be groundless and the attackers did not have the resources necessary for the attack, or the banks were sufficiently protected, or they paid the required amount.
DDoS attacks are also used to combat competitors and other unwanted persons. As noted in a new Europol cybersecurity report, such attacks are often carried out for specific events: for example, targeting florists in the run-up to Valentine's Day or online bookmakers before large-scale sporting events.
At the beginning of this year, hackers organized DDoS attacks on the resources of the Dr.Web company with a capacity of 200 thousand to 500 thousand requests per second - in retaliation for the activities of the antivirus developer.
Dangerous things
Today, experts warn about the possibility of new, unprecedentedly powerful DDoS attacks due to the development of the Internet of Things. There are currently more than 6 billion active worldwide electronic devices connected to the Internet - IP cameras, routers, access control and management systems, as well as smart home systems (from light bulbs to door locks).
Each of these devices can become the source of a DDoS attack, especially since they all have many security flaws that allow attackers to access them from the Internet.
Check Point specialists reported the discovery of a giant Reaper botnet that includes millions of devices, including most D-Link routers, Netgear and Linksys, as well as Internet-connected security cameras.
In September 2016, the website of cybersecurity specialist Brian Krebs was crashed as a result of DDoS attacks, organized by a network of one and a half million routers and security cameras infected with the Mirai virus. Last week, Check Point reported the discovery of the giant Reaper botnet, which includes millions of devices, including most D-Link, Netgear, and Linksys routers, as well as Internet-connected surveillance cameras from companies such as Vacron, GoAhead and AVTech.
Reaper has not yet shown any activity, but Chinese antivirus company Qihoo 360, which also discovered the botnet, warns that the virus could change and reactivate at any time, causing large swaths of the global internet to shut down.
Either insure or don’t insure
The intensity of cyber attacks is increasing every year. Check Point estimates that today, on average, one malicious program is downloaded every 4 seconds in the world, and this is eight and a half times more often than a year ago. Russian company Croc reports that the number of customer requests related to the elimination of ransomware viruses has increased fivefold over the year.
One of the main reasons for the spread of cyber threats is rightly considered to be the frivolous attitude of many companies to computer security issues. In this regard, the EU plans to introduce fines for weak cyber protection measures.
The volume of insurance premiums in the field of cyber insurance today exceeds 3 billion euros, and by 2020 it will grow to 8.9 billion euros.
In Russia, as part of the Digital Economy program, it is planned to introduce a standard by 2020 information security and mandatory insurance against cyber attacks for strategic companies - banks, airports, train stations, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, shipbuilding and aviation industry enterprises.
It should be noted that in Europe cyber insurance has long become a serious and thriving business. According to Europol estimates, the volume of insurance premiums in this area today exceeds 3 billion euros, and by 2020 will grow to 8.9 billion euros. However, the organization warns that “cyber insurance encourages complacency among companies by relying on it instead of investing in proactive measures to protect against hackers.”
No matter how much they earn, their work is dishonest and dirty. Although there is a certain caste of noble hackers who, like Robin Hoods, strive to restore justice in this crazy world. But there are only a few of them. Basically, these are scammers with a criminal mindset, or forced laboring nerds in the service of the special services - sorry for the pun. However, this is all lyrics, let’s try to roughly reproduce the numbers they have from their criminal works.
Well-known fighters against hacker programs, the guys from Kaspersky, say that the income from a hacker attack can exceed the costs of organizing it by as much as 20 orders of magnitude. And their incomes are growing year after year, because our life has turned into continuous cyberspace - count how many different operations humanity now performs on the Internet. Almost all important matters are conducted over the network, money, correspondence, exchange of information and media. And where there is supply, there is demand. The bulk of cybercrimes, of course, involve the theft of money from accounts and cards.
General market trend
According to the latest open source data, which is now outdated and dates back to 2011, the global cybercrime market was worth $12.5 billion, up $5.5 billion from 2010 data. It is not surprising if today, in 2016, this figure has increased significantly!
A modern hacker is not a genius programmer; there are only a few of them. A modern hacker practically does not develop his own software, he buys them and uses them for his own purposes - for this you do not need to have seven spans of intelligence. Even the cheapest hacking programs generate significant income. Today, a hacker is more of a psychologist, marketer and fraudster than an evil genius. Having acquired a malicious program, the main thing is to be able to fully use it, that is, to introduce it into the victim’s camp, which is where various psychological marketing tricks are used in letters and mailings.
To create a fake account on social networks and spam mailings from it, it will cost approximately $150-200. And if at least a hundred people take the bait and send their data to cybercriminals, you can earn from $10,000 from this - by selling only confidential information obtained in this way.
Trojans
But Trojan programs bring the bulk of hackers' profits. For example, a simple case is a screen locker. They infect a computer with it, and not only a computer - a smartphone, a tablet, and then a ransom is required to unlock it. Code Trojan horse usually costs 1000 US dollars, for unlocking they require 100-200 US dollars. By infecting 15-20 users, you can pay for the Trojan and make a profit. You can also make money from ransomware Trojans, although they cost more – about $2,000.
The heavy artillery of this type of crime is banking Trojans. They provide access to the victim's accounts. The banking Trojan code costs more than $3,000, and the average income after its implementation is $75,000.
Millionaire hackers
There is evidence that in Russia alone, hackers earn more than $1 billion a year. The average hacker makes approximately $50,000 per year. Much of this money is from Russian victims of their attacks. There are approximately 20,000 hackers in Russia. Typically, most of them in the regions receive 10-20 thousand dollars a year. But there are also dollar millionaires among hackers, more than a hundred of them. Some Russian hacker groups make up to $10 million a week. The recorded record amount of earnings for the hacker group is $24 and $26 million.
Second side
Those who oppose hackers are the same hackers, but on the other side of the barricades - they get much less. Their usual salary is 1000-1500 dollars per month. In Moscow, of course, it’s more – from $2,500 per month. Usually these are employees of companies developing computer security systems and hackers in intelligence agencies.
The general trend is that Russia today is the absolute leader in the number of cyber incidents using Trojans - this is 72% of the total number of incidents in all countries, and the income of criminals, on average, according to experts, is $10 million per week.
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