Security researchers unpick botnet economics
The economics of botnets and the sale of stolen information in underground bazaars have been detailed in greater depth then ever before in new research from Kasperky Lab. Infecting PCs with strains of malware that leave them open to remote control by hackers has been the mainstay of various forms of cybercrime - spamming, …
This topic is closed for new posts.
A question I've often wondered...
If you're in the market for a load of credit card details how do you go about it?
Surely you won't want to give your card details to a shadowy figure who makes a living from selling card details!
And as the shadowy figure selling card details, would you trust a prospective customer who is after card details, to be purchasing with a genuine one?
So how is the financial transaction carried out? The shadowy figures obviously needs this to be unregulated and untraceable or they'd get caught/shutdown.
disable autoplay?
When was the last time we saw a virus out in the wild that spread by removable media?
surely that's a rather redundant bit of advice? I'm fairly certain that any freebie AV software would spot such an old virus practically before you put the disk in the drive.
Oh, with the exception of that Intervideo DRM infection malicious turdware that keeps cropping up on DVDs.
Mines the one with the actual Plays For Sure advert-free XVID logo on the disc
Baron Samedi?
Has someone been working their way through the works of William Gibson by any chance?
Re: A question I've often wondered...
Probably though some sort of escrow service.
@disable autoplay?
For "removable media" read USB memory keys. Conficker spreads on those, and that is a current or at least recent threat.
Re: A question I've often wondered...
There was another underground economy study recently that looks at the cheating you describe. The main conclusion is the reason creds sell for pennies is that the vast majority of what's offered for sale is junk offered by rippers.
http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217701656
Re: A question I've often wondered...
Western Union is the favoured way to be paid for scammers. Western Union, it would seem, are quite happy to take the business with minimal security.
Re: Baron Samedi?
The master of the dead in Haitian Vodou? Quite appropriate for the controllers of zombified machines, no?
The Matrix Loa were aspects or fragments of the resultant Neuromancer/Wintermute entity, if one reads between the lines, which leads to another thought provoked: Perhaps botnets could be the accidental route to autonomous artificial intelligence, not that we'll likely appreciate the results given their origins...
Hmm, joke alert or ROTM?
@Steve Evans
Bot herders often accept payment via various wire services. There are other means, but this is a particularly popular one.
@Steve Evans
EGold, WU, Liberty Reserve, WMZ
Mostly Gold transfer services.
Most verified traders use the website's escrow service.
re: A question I've often wondered
escrow, western union or any other money transfer service, paypal, c.o.d., direct account to account transfer, postal orders, sure the swiss could give you a few options (more if your a nazi), and more that i cant b arsed to list
This topic is closed for new posts.
