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Hackers Offer Subscription, Support for Malware

Posted by Zonk on from the ingenuity-leads-to-swelled-pockets dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "Organised gangs are taking a page out of security vendors' books and setting up their own websites that offer support and subscriptions for malware and spyware. From the article: 'For subscriptions starting as low as $20 per month, enterprises can sell fully managed exploit engines that spyware distributors and spammers can use to infiltrate systems worldwide, said Gunter Ollmann, director of security strategies at IBM's ISS X-Force team. Many exploit providers simply wait for Microsoft's monthly patches, which they then reverse engineer to develop new exploit code against the disclosed vulnerabilities, Ollmann said. "Then all you've got to do is just subscribe to them on a monthly basis.'"

3 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Title somewhat misleading by robinsonne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I first read the title, I thought it meant that hackers were now selling "protection" from malware in much the same way organized gangs have sold "protection" in the past. Perhaps a better title would be "Hackers organize, sell exploits as business"

  2. Sounds like a trap to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Erm, if you're daft enough to sign up and give them your credit card details directly, doesn't that mean they no longer need bother writing the malware?

  3. Putting the "organized" in "organized crime" by Kelson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I saw the summary, I was half-certain it had to be a delayed April 1 submission. Then I looked at the article. And thought about it.

    It actually fits a pattern we've seen with viruses, trojans, spyware, other malware, cracking, even spam. They've gone from small shops, often one programmer trying to make a name for himself, to full-on organized crime using businesslike structures and tactics.