New bad actors are ‘starting to flood the cybercriminal market’, according to the latest report from Atlas VPN. They are trying to earn a quick buck off people and organisations that have not established a reliable security system.
The research team’s findings show that 45% of corporate network access costs less than $1,000 (€852.34) on the dark web. Businesses in the services and manufacturing industries are the main options for hackers when planning an attack.
Hackers put up 45% of offers for access to corporate networks for less than $1,000 (€852.34) on the dark web. Important to note that this percentage in 2017 was only 15%. However, between Q2 2020 and Q1 2021, the rate has risen to what it is now.
Access to corporate networks that cost between $1,000 (€852.34) and $2,499 (€2130.01) made up 22% of the dark web market. On the other hand, the corporate network accesses priced between $2,500 (€2130.86) and $4,999 (€4260.87) accounted for 17% of the underground forum market.
Hackers evaluate the number of computers to be exposed, account privileges, businesses size, revenue, and other financial indicators. Also, the price of access could be impacted by the industry in which the company is operating.
Access to corporate networks selling for $5,000 (€4261.72) -$9,999 (€8522.60) composed 9% of the dark web market. At the same time, accesses offered above the $10,000 (€8523.45) price range made up 7% of the market.
Cybersecurity writer and researcher at Atlas VPN, William Sword shares his thoughts on the changes in the cybercriminal market, “Low-priced accesses usually are sold by inexperienced, wannabe hackers, who might not even follow through with the attack. Despite that, the rising percentage of cheap access means that many new, less-skilled cybercriminals entered the market, and they could become more dangerous in the future.”
Most targeted industries
Hackers find some industries more valuable than others because several businesses in specific sectors have put fewer resources into cybersecurity, making them an easier target.
The services industry is the most popular among cybercriminals, as 17% chose to target this sector. While companies in this industry have a lot of sensitive data about their customers, service businesses become lucrative targets for hackers to sell the stolen information online.
Next up, we have the manufacturing sector picked out by 14% of hackers. By gaining access to a manufacturing business, cybercriminals could steal personal information and severely disrupt normal operations.
Furthermore, 12% of cybercriminals on the dark web selected the research and education industry to attack. As smaller schools usually do not have the best system security, low-skilled threat actors find them easier victims.
In addition, the IT industry became a target for 7% of threat actors which purchased corporate network accesses. Finally, all othersectors accumulated 26%of accesses sold on the dark web forums.
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