The Online Shadow Economy

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The Online Shadow Economy:
A Billion Dollar Market For Malware AuthorsMaksym Schipka, Senior
A malware middleman buys malware from a programmer and Introduction uses the services of a botnet owner to spread it. A botnet is Malware, meaning computer viruses, trojans and spyware, is a remotely-controlled network of computers that have been about money. The teenagers who wrote viruses have grown up infected by a virus. Typically, they are poorly protected computers and now they're trying to make money. The shadow Internet belonging to innocent people around the world. You may have a economy is worth over $105 billion. Online crime is bigger than bot running on your PC now and not know it. These computers the global drugs trade. There is a sophisticated online black give botnet owners the computing horsepower and network market with tens of thousands of participants. Collectively, online connectivity to spam out millions of emails or send out hundreds criminals are using the techniques of the free market to subvert of thousands of trojan attacks or host a malicious website. Once and corrupt legitimate online business. the malware has spread, the middleman can sit back and start to collect stolen information and identities.Dot.com entrepreneurs of crimeMaksym Schipka, Senior Architect at MessageLabs, has been The middleman sells the stolen identities to make money. spending a lot of time exploring this criminal underworld. He has A full identity sells for around $5. This includes full name and been looking at Russian websites, chat forums and exchanges address, a passport or driving licence scan, credit card numbers because he understands the language and because they are and bank account details. Credit card numbers sell for 2-5% of the most active. However, there are similar online markets in the remaining credit balance on the cards in question. Identity other countries. In the shadow economy, people boast of making thieves offer their customers a high level of service. For example, $10,000 a day and while this may be bravado, people are making you can buy identities sorted by country, industry, role; and credit good money in the shadow economy. With little chance of being cards sorted by remaining balance.caught and so much money at stake, it is little wonder that "a huge number of people are involved," according to Schipka. There is another category of middleman who specializes in turning stolen credit card identities into cash. He will buy Division of labor credit card information and then use a "drop service." A drop is The big surprise is the level of specialization and the someone who receives goods purchased with a stolen credit sophistication of the market. Picture a mall: some shops sell card. Some are criminal fences; others are unwitting dupes doing clothes, some sell food, others sell books and so on. Each shop it for cash. A middleman buys goods from online shops - typically is specialized and dedicated to one type of product. For each cameras and portable computers - and then ships them to drops. type of product, there are several shops competing to offer better The drops, in turn, post them on or sell them immediately for prices and better service. This is what the shadow economy cash. This is how a stolen credit card is laundered.is like. Scammers scammedLet's look at one online crime and see how it breaks down into They say there's no honor among thieves. This is also true of a series of specialized trades. First, malware writers create new the shadow economy. Fraud and rip-offs are so common that a viruses, spyware, and trojans to infect computers. For as little system of guarantors and escrow accounts has emerged. For as $250 you can buy a custom written malware and for an extra example, a drop service provider might offer a guarantee to an $25 a month you can subscribe to updates that will ensure your identity thief that they will be paid their cut of the sale of any malware evades detection. The vast majority of malware authors goods, even if individual fences don't pay up. do not distribute it themselves. In fact, they make great play of offering their software "for educational purposes only" in the hope Similarly, guarantors will provide an escrow service. For example, that this offers some immunity from prosecution. a buyer will transfer payment to the guarantor and the seller will transmit the virus code or the credit card numbers. I... [download for more]