CyberCrime : 2020 Dark-Web Market Report
For the third consecutive year, Armour’s security research team, Threat Resistance Unit (TRU), investigated secretive hacker markets and forums to explore the illegal goods and services that cybercriminals can offer or purchase there. This report is based on 15 markets and a large variety of underground hacker forums, news sites, and digital archives, so-called, open repositories, between October 2019 and June 2020. The goal of the TRU team is to understand the state of a such sustainably growing and remarkable innovative ecosystem of the dark-web in order to be able to better assess the current and future threat situation.
For the first time, the TRU team has also examined pharmaceuticals and other health products sold on these bootleg markets, especially those related to COVID -19. This health crisis has not only affected legitimate marketplaces but has unfortunately created dozens of fraud opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit thousands of people with a range of scams.
The results of the study are as frightening as in the reports of the past two years. Stolen bank and credit card data, PayPal accounts and cloned loans, ATM, or debit cards are among the standard offers on the marketplaces. Full identity packages and a variety of malware were still being offered, as well as – Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials. Last mentioned have even fallen in price this year, indicating that these credentials are currently in mass circulation. Seen the increase in the number of teleworkers, over the past six months, this is not surprising, as many companies were unprepared by the lockdown due to COVID and have not had the opportunity to implement appropriate security measures.
Security researchers also found a number of offers in the service sector that have been popular with cybercriminals for years. These include attacks using a distributed denial-of-service attack, aka, DDoS, in which the website of the attacked company, often their competitor, is paralyzed by the simultaneous access of thousands of hijacked end devices. The goal behind taking down a website using DDOS attacks is stealing corporate email credentials, providing ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), or transferring thousands of dollars of cash into a bank account or PayPal account of one’s choice. The theft of individuals’ corporate e-mail access data, RaaS, botnets, and the simple theft of hacked bank accounts are also becoming increasingly popular.
In addition to these already known and often horrifying threats, which can easily be reserved or purchased via the Dark Web, the TRU team has also exposed several new products and services this year. These include the offer to completely destroy a competitor’s business. This is supposed to work by spamming emails and phone calls, sending unsolicited goods, and publishing the victim’s phone number in dodgy advertising campaigns and is available for the comparatively bargain price of $185. Another new feature is that cybercriminals can book a complete e-commerce service that provides them with everything they need to start a business, even on the dark web. A growing ecosystem of advertising opportunities, news sources, and rating systems for the services offered also seem to be establishing itself to provide buyers with the right information.
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This year, the TRU team was particularly concerned that they discovered a number of fullz business for sale, known in hacker jargon as “fullz”, which contain complete packages of individual identification information, as well as Personal Fullz where the data was filtered from financial loan applications. Business Fullz contains everything attackers need to act as legitimate representatives of a real business. Personal fullz from credit applications, on the other hand, contain enough personal information to commit identity theft. In addition to that, one of the most worrisome items the TRU team saw this year was the Hacker University. For just $125, paid in Bitcoin or Monero, the “professors” at this online university can provide all the knowledge newbies need to succeed as cybercriminals, from operational security to Wi-Fi hacking to network attacks.
Another interesting service that the TRU team has discovered in the cyber underground is a complete turnkey e-commerce service that enables the possibility for dark web sellers to set up their own e-business in an underground marketplace from which they can sell their illegal goods and services. This offer includes 4 different levels of digital marketplace services. You can opt for “standard”, “Business”, “Plus” and an “Ultimate” package. The Standard package comes at the price of 5000 euros and includes website hosting services, technical support, escrow plug-in, and payment gateways for Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero. Other packages are offered for 10.000€ and include all standard features plus light or advanced marketing support and promotions. Over 240 customers are benefiting from this e-commerce service.
Like previous years, the dark-web still provides you the possibility to rent expensive software for a specific project at a much lower rate than the officials’ vendors. For instance, you can easily obtain the 2019 version of Adobe Premiere Pro (a program for video editing) for $5.67, or a license for one user to Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection CS6 with 18 different popular Adobe products for a very attractive rate. Multiple other types of commercial popular software are listed for $250 per day and up to $1,000 for three months’ access.
Cybercriminals don’t only need software to do their business, they also need a reliable IT infrastructure to host their malware, botnets, spam, and phishing sites. They want their IT infrastructure to stay online 24/7. They can get a morally liberal service called “bulletproof hosting” for the way it can largely withstand scrutiny for a cost of $4 and $19 a month. Bulletproof hosting companies can be found in any country. However, many of them are located in China, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
You can find the full “Dark Market Report” on this link. The information is relevant for security experts and companies worldwide in order to acknowledge the trends in the dark web in order to adapt their security strategy accordingly. Knowledge is power and the more you know about your enemies, the better you can protect yourself.