Cybersecurity

How do cybercriminals secure cybercrime?

Cybercrime is a highly professional industry, with sales and advertisements leveraging legitimate marketing techniques and platforms, all driven by cost to some extent. For example, one advertisement was found for dedicated, compromised servers based in the US starting at just $3, rising to $6 with guaranteed availability for 12 hours.

Although many of these services are traded on underground forums, some of which are invite-only, others are clearly advertised and sold via legitimate social media and messaging platforms such as Twitter, VK and Telegram.

In fact, the line between criminality and legitimate business behavior is increasingly difficult to discern. Some hosting providers have a legitimate clientele and advertise openly on the internet but may have resellers that sell exclusively to the criminal underground – either with or without the company’s knowledge.