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Cyber Black Market tops drug trade in profits
The days of individuals infecting systems with small-scale viruses have come and gone. In the past, malware that caused widespread damage was almost unheard of, but today, this shadowy industry has evolved to reach an all time high in connections and profitability.
According to InformationWeek contributor Mathew Schwartz, these are the findings arrived by a recent RAND Corporation report, "Markets for Cybercrime Tools and Stolen Data," which studied the increasing impact of underground cybercrime marketplaces.
"Forget script kiddies and website taggers: Cybercrime forums have become the domain of well-organized criminal enterprises and even some nation states," Schwartz wrote. "The economic maturity these black-market forums has reached could give attackers an edge over would-be defenders."
Surprisingly profitable
While the prevalence of cybercrime and malware attacks may not be surprising to many, the revenues generated by these activities may raise some eyebrows. One security firm, which commissioned the RAND report, noted that the underground malware marketplace has reached a level where its profits exceed that of the global illegal drug trade, ZDNet noted.
For example, the report noted that within the current attack landscape, social media authentication information has a higher value for hackers than fraudulent payment card credentials.
"To be glib, the report says Twitter accounts are more valuable than stolen credit cards, the hacker's black market is more profitable than the illegal drug trade, bug bounties may not be all that, botnets are still what all the girls are wearing this spring, reputation is everything, and loose lips still sink ships," summarized ZDNet contributor Violet Blue.
Protection strategies
As the underground cybercrime market becomes more powerful, it will become increasingly important to implement better safeguards for personal and company-owned information.
For instance, users should seek to implement two-factor authentication, which is becoming a more popular authentication standard. This technology requires users to enter not only a username and password, but also a code or phrase sent to a connected device or email account.
Organizations can also seek to safeguard their sensitive content with encryption protection available through SSL certificates. This security measure prevents unauthorized third-party access by making content indecipherable to anyone without the decryption key.
Protect data in transit with an SSL certificate today.
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