Malicious action means profit

Johannesburg, 03 Sept 2007

A little over a thousand dollars can buy a cybercrook the tools needed to turn malicious action into financial profit, reveals PandaLabs.

All types of crimeware tools can be bought on hundreds of forums, and despite most Web pages originating from Eastern Europe, Internet mafia networks now extend worldwide, says the Internet security company.

The prices vary. A Trojan, for example, would cost between $350 and $700. A password stealer Trojan costs $600 while a Limbo Trojan (with fewer features) costs around $500, according to PandaLabs.

"For a list of e-mail addresses to distribute the Trojan to, aspiring cybercrooks only have to visit another Web page, where they can get mailing lists of all sizes. Prices vary from $100 per million addresses to $1 500 for 32 million," explains the company.

According to PandaLabs, the cybercrook then has to ensure anti-virus programs will not detect the malicious code. For between $1 and $5 per hidden executable, they can hire a service that protects the malware against security tools.

The last step is to send e-mails to distribute the Trojan. For approximately $500, cybercrooks can rent a spam server, the company says.

Undetected

If a Trojan costs $500 and a million-address mailing list costs around $100, then $600 is enough to infect a million people. With almost a 10% success rate, hackers could infect 100 000 users, says PandaLabs.

If cybercrooks manage to steal bank details from 10% of those on the mailing list, it would mean access to 10 000 bank accounts, says PandaLabs. However, emptying thousands of accounts would be suspicious and crooks seek to obtain money invisibly.

They take a small sum of money from each account, a hundred dollars, for example. Multiplied by 10 000, it still totals a million dollars, explains PandaLabs.