Cybercriminals can now purchase DDoS attacks for $2 (\u00a31.32) an hour from a rampant online marketplace of tools and services. That is according to a new white paper analysing the growth of the “as-a-service” nature of cybercrime penned by two senior technical bods at security vendor McAfee. As a result, the volume of cyberattacks is likely to increase” said report authors Raj Samani, vice president and chief technology officer EMEA and Francois Paget, senior threat research engineer at McAfee. The study highlighted a service offering to launch a DDoS attack on behalf of would-be attackers from as little as $2 per hour, for a one- to four-hour attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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The service simply required attackers to inform it of which site they wish to launch a DDos attack against, decide how much they are willing to pay, and initiate the service.<\/p>\n
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This is just one example of a vast array of services and tools that make up a tumescent online marketplace wannabe cybercriminals can use to gather components of a cyberattack \u2013 or outsource the process altogether, the study found.<\/p>\n
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Stolen bank login information commands a higher price than credit card numbers, with prices ranging from two to 10 per cent of the account’s balance.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, so-called “bulletproof” hosting providers \u2013 firms which knowingly provide web or domain hosting to cybercriminals \u2013 can charge between $50 and $400 for their services per month.<\/p>\n
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Troels Oerting, head of EC3 European Cybercrime Centre \u2013 who wrote the white paper’s foreword, said: “Today’s cybercriminals do not necessarily require considerable technical expertise to get the job done, nor, in certain cases, do they even need to own a computer.<\/p>\n
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A marketplace offering cybercrime tools and services provides would-be criminals with an arsenal that can either be used as a component of a cyberattack or a handy way of outsourcing the process entirely.”<\/p>\n