The role of hackers has changed over the years, in the past these professionals were seen as dangerous criminals who needed to be kept at arm's length.
Meanwhile, today they are in great demand by private companies, special services and criminal gangs.
"An increasing number of modern business operations rely on understanding the risks of software that can easily be made vulnerable to hacking." This is stated in the message on the role of hackers on the Fox News website.
Hacking services are some of the most attractive products in the underground market, you can hire a hacker to request a "realistic" penetration test, or pay to hijack your Gmail or Facebook account for cyber espionage.
How much does it cost to hire a hacker? How to do this and what is the price for their services?
Business Insider recently published a post detailing the prices of basic hacking services that can be purchased online. According to Business Insider, a person who wants to hack into someone's Gmail account will have to pay around $ 90.
“Hacking a Gmail address can come in handy if you lose your account password, manage other people's business accounts, or just want to improve your computer skills,” the post states.
"If you want to hack Gmail passwords, you can hack Gmail using browser settings, phishing and keyloggers, and custom scripts."
For example, hackers can be hired to hack a social media account, the cost of hacking someone's Facebook account is $ 350, or simply to boost a company's social media rating.
Dive into hacker communities
The number of hacker communities on the Deep Web is very large, as evidenced by several studies published by security firms and cyber experts, hackforum, Trojanforge, Mazafaka, dark0de and the recent TheRealDeal are just a few examples.
Most of the hacking communities are closed to the public, and you need to request an invitation to join the discussions. In many cases, these groups specialize in their activities on specific topics and techniques (eg, social media hacking, data theft, malware and exploits, and strike and flight attacks (eg DDoS, website hacking).
Among the invite-only communities, there are several hack forums, such as the popular Trojanforge, which specializes in malware and code reverse.
Let's kick off our Deep Web tour with a survey by Dell Secure Works Counter Threat Unit (CTU) experts to see what has changed since the report was published and what are the dynamics and trends behind the hacker communities. In the underground. In 2013, experts from the Dell Secure Works Threats Unit (CTU) published a very interesting report entitled "The Economy of Clandestine Hacker Attacks Is Alive and Healthy."
Who researched the online marketplace for data theft and hacking services. The study lists items sold on the black market and the associated costs. A year later, the same research team at Dell SecureWorks released an updated version of their Black Hat market research titled "Underground Hacker Markets," which reported a number of notable trends.
Researchers have observed a growing interest in personal data, in particular any documentation that can be used as a second form of authentication, including passports, driver's licenses, social security numbers, and even utility bills.
Markets are thriving with fraudulent documents contributing to further fraud, including new sets of ID cards, passports, utility bills, social security cards and driver's licenses. the report says.
Another distinguishing element of the evolution of underground marketplaces over the past year is the offering of Hacker Tutorials, as we have seen that this kind of product continues to represent an element of appeal in the hacker community.
The tutorials contain instructions for criminals and hackers looking to tackle credit card theft, information on running exploit kits, guides for organizing spam and phishing campaigns, and tutorials on organizing DDoS attacks.
“These guides not only explain what a ransomware, remote access Trojan (RAT), and a set of exploits are, but also explain how they are used, which ones are the most popular, and how much hackers should pay for these hacking tools,” says report.
Other guidelines offered in the hacker communities include instructions on how to break into ATMs and manage the money mule network, which are key players in the process of cashing out any illegal activity.
Dell's investigation results support the findings of another interesting report, published by TrendMicro, on activities in the Brazilian underground, which is characterized by the presence of a significant number of similar products and services. Hacking communities are very active in the sale of stolen credit cards, differentiating their offerings to reach a wider audience and provide customized services at higher prices.
“It is clear that underground hackers are monetizing every piece of data they can steal or buy, and are constantly adding services so that other scammers can successfully carry out online fraud and fraud in person,” the report said.
The following table, which the author found on Twitter, lists the services and products with their respective prices, denominated in both bitcoins and euros.
Hiring hackers on the Tor network
The author is not at all sure about the quality of suggestions from alleged hackers who advertise their services on various hacker forums underground. The experts you find in many hacking communities can help you conduct a penetration test on your website, or they can exploit the known flaws of vulnerable websites that you intend to hack.
Let's start our tour from the Rent-A-Hacker website; It seems to be run by a single hacker who writes the following about himself:
Onion urls for its website:
The hacker explains that he is a professional who specializes in illegal hacking services that he offers to "destroy some business or people's lives."
Reading his description, it seems that he specializes in website hacking and is probably running a botnet that he offers for DDoS attacks.
The hacker also explains that he can conduct a spy campaign and track online activity. Among the services that he offers, there is also the collection of personal information about any person, in any case, each tactic can be performed with an hourly rate, which is about $ 100, of course, prices depend on many factors, including the complexity of the task.
Of course, payments are anonymous and made through the virtual currency Bitcoin.
While surfing the Tor network, the author found several black markets and forums offering hacking services:
Hacker for Hire (http://hacker4hhjvre2qj.onion/) is one of them.
The site offers a wide range of services, from cyber fraud to hacking services. It is curious to note that the website operator also offers both offensive and defensive services, the specific services are actually targeted at cybercrime victims.
Another website that offers many illegal products is Hell.
http://hell2bjhfxm77htq.onion
The web portal has several sections related to hacking tools, tutorials, and of course, it is filled with hackers who offer their services. In the Jobs section there are various suggestions for hacking services, the author contacted some of the alleged hackers negotiating the following prices for some specific tasks.
There are several hackers on the Tor network offering their services using their own websites, black markets are the preferred choice to contact and hire a hacker. The main benefits of hiring a black market hacker are:
For this reason, the author decided to research some of the most popular black markets looking for hackers to hire. He started his short tour on the black market:
TheRealDeal (http://trdealmgn4uvm42g.onion)
Which recently emerged in the underground community to provide both sellers and buyers with a privileged environment to commercialize exploit kits and hacker services. The author found among the hackers who offer their services the ability to pay for a DDoS attack or for setting up malware, and in TheRealDeal market, you can pay for various types of tutorials. Below is a table listing offers that have been received from hackers or who have posted their offers on the marketplace.
Another popular black market is Nucleus:
But at least 2 more mirrors are dedicated to serving visitors), this market is more focused on products (e.g. malware, stolen card data, etc.) than service. The author tried to contact some vendors, and only one of them offered him hacking services to hack the server or compromise a specific user who steals his data with a targeted attack.
The following table lists some of the products / services available on the Nucleus Marketplace.
What can we find on the Dark Web?
The deep web is a "hidden reality" in which all kinds of illegal products and services can be found. Black Markets are places in the Dark where sellers offer their illegal goods and services, including drugs, weapons, counterfeit goods, stolen goods, credit cards, access to bank accounts, fake IDs and related documents, various accounts, human trafficking. authorities, hacking services, and killers.
The hacking market on the Dark Web is thriving on the anonymity offered by the communication protocols implemented on this part of the network. The newest trend seen by security experts is the selling model known as “hacking as a service”.
Adding technical support to hacking tools (i.e. friendly interfaces, email and IRC) reduces the complexity of their use, for example, according to this model example, ransomware kits are offered, allowing anyone to commit crimes for as little as 50 euros.
The most common services available in the hacker underground are:
Exploit kits are still sold in their entirety (including source code), but still have an exorbitant price tag ($ 20-30K), which is why users rent them for a limited period ($ 500 per month). A similar approach is applied to zero-day exploits, which can cost up to hundreds of thousands of euros (MS-15-034).
What are the main players in Deep Web hacking?
There are several hacker communities on the Deep Web that are accessible through both anonymous protocols and Clearnet. Many of them are invite-only, which leads to an exception, they usually focus on specific topics (for example Trojanforge: malware and reverb), but there are also general communities (hackforum) whose members solve various issues related to the world of hacking. except for carding, fraud or "financial" crimes.
There are many forums and chat rooms on the Dark Net dedicated to Black Hat activities, but the sale of products and services is done through black markets to reach a wide audience. The main players in the deep web hacker attack market are:
What are the risks for buyers?
Black markets hosted on the darknet increase the safety of both sellers and buyers, making them difficult for law enforcement to track. In any case, there is a specific risk that users will fall prey to a website being used by law enforcement as decoys.
Another risk for buyers is that law enforcement agencies may intercept a shipment of real and illegal goods (such as drugs or weapons).
How does the payment take place, what does the buyer guarantee?
Trust is one of the main problems of hacking communities, in the black market, as in any other market, operators have implemented a reputation mechanism based on customer feedback. Some black markets are implementing BTC MultiSignature based escrow mechanisms to protect both sellers and buyers.
Payment is usually made using a virtual currency scheme such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, operators rarely allow PayPal, Western Union and other payment systems.
Conclusion
As we've seen, hiring a hacker in the many black markets available on the Deep Web isn't all that difficult, especially when someone needs simple tasks. A completely different situation arises when you are looking for a professional team of hackers to hire - these groups usually use different channels to reach a limited number of clients.
Another consideration to keep in mind is that most of the services offered through several hidden services are scams and in many cases hackers are unable to complete their tasks.
For this reason, users who intend to hire a hacker usually refer to black markets because of the reputation mechanisms they implement.
Another point to pay attention to is that prices for various hacking services are quite similar in different forums or in hacker communities, which may allow us to track the evolution and trends in the hacker underground.
For example, price fluctuations can be caused by the sudden appearance of a product in a criminal ecosystem. The availability of large amounts of data associated with a data breach could lead to a decrease in the price of a single record and support the hacker's proposal against the customers of the affected organizations.
This information is extremely valuable for law enforcement agencies and for those who constantly monitor criminal groups and their activities.
Meanwhile, today they are in great demand by private companies, special services and criminal gangs.
"An increasing number of modern business operations rely on understanding the risks of software that can easily be made vulnerable to hacking." This is stated in the message on the role of hackers on the Fox News website.
Hacking services are some of the most attractive products in the underground market, you can hire a hacker to request a "realistic" penetration test, or pay to hijack your Gmail or Facebook account for cyber espionage.
How much does it cost to hire a hacker? How to do this and what is the price for their services?
Business Insider recently published a post detailing the prices of basic hacking services that can be purchased online. According to Business Insider, a person who wants to hack into someone's Gmail account will have to pay around $ 90.
“Hacking a Gmail address can come in handy if you lose your account password, manage other people's business accounts, or just want to improve your computer skills,” the post states.
"If you want to hack Gmail passwords, you can hack Gmail using browser settings, phishing and keyloggers, and custom scripts."
For example, hackers can be hired to hack a social media account, the cost of hacking someone's Facebook account is $ 350, or simply to boost a company's social media rating.
Dive into hacker communities
The number of hacker communities on the Deep Web is very large, as evidenced by several studies published by security firms and cyber experts, hackforum, Trojanforge, Mazafaka, dark0de and the recent TheRealDeal are just a few examples.
Most of the hacking communities are closed to the public, and you need to request an invitation to join the discussions. In many cases, these groups specialize in their activities on specific topics and techniques (eg, social media hacking, data theft, malware and exploits, and strike and flight attacks (eg DDoS, website hacking).
Among the invite-only communities, there are several hack forums, such as the popular Trojanforge, which specializes in malware and code reverse.
Let's kick off our Deep Web tour with a survey by Dell Secure Works Counter Threat Unit (CTU) experts to see what has changed since the report was published and what are the dynamics and trends behind the hacker communities. In the underground. In 2013, experts from the Dell Secure Works Threats Unit (CTU) published a very interesting report entitled "The Economy of Clandestine Hacker Attacks Is Alive and Healthy."
Who researched the online marketplace for data theft and hacking services. The study lists items sold on the black market and the associated costs. A year later, the same research team at Dell SecureWorks released an updated version of their Black Hat market research titled "Underground Hacker Markets," which reported a number of notable trends.
Researchers have observed a growing interest in personal data, in particular any documentation that can be used as a second form of authentication, including passports, driver's licenses, social security numbers, and even utility bills.
Markets are thriving with fraudulent documents contributing to further fraud, including new sets of ID cards, passports, utility bills, social security cards and driver's licenses. the report says.
Another distinguishing element of the evolution of underground marketplaces over the past year is the offering of Hacker Tutorials, as we have seen that this kind of product continues to represent an element of appeal in the hacker community.
The tutorials contain instructions for criminals and hackers looking to tackle credit card theft, information on running exploit kits, guides for organizing spam and phishing campaigns, and tutorials on organizing DDoS attacks.
“These guides not only explain what a ransomware, remote access Trojan (RAT), and a set of exploits are, but also explain how they are used, which ones are the most popular, and how much hackers should pay for these hacking tools,” says report.
Other guidelines offered in the hacker communities include instructions on how to break into ATMs and manage the money mule network, which are key players in the process of cashing out any illegal activity.
Dell's investigation results support the findings of another interesting report, published by TrendMicro, on activities in the Brazilian underground, which is characterized by the presence of a significant number of similar products and services. Hacking communities are very active in the sale of stolen credit cards, differentiating their offerings to reach a wider audience and provide customized services at higher prices.
“It is clear that underground hackers are monetizing every piece of data they can steal or buy, and are constantly adding services so that other scammers can successfully carry out online fraud and fraud in person,” the report said.
The following table, which the author found on Twitter, lists the services and products with their respective prices, denominated in both bitcoins and euros.
Hiring hackers on the Tor network
The author is not at all sure about the quality of suggestions from alleged hackers who advertise their services on various hacker forums underground. The experts you find in many hacking communities can help you conduct a penetration test on your website, or they can exploit the known flaws of vulnerable websites that you intend to hack.
Let's start our tour from the Rent-A-Hacker website; It seems to be run by a single hacker who writes the following about himself:
- “An experienced hacker offers his services! (Illegal) Hacking and social engineering has been my business since I was 16, I never had a real job, so I had time to be really good at hacker attacks and I made a good amount of money in the last + -20 years. I used to work for other people, and now I offer my services to everyone who has enough money here.
Onion urls for its website:
The hacker explains that he is a professional who specializes in illegal hacking services that he offers to "destroy some business or people's lives."
Reading his description, it seems that he specializes in website hacking and is probably running a botnet that he offers for DDoS attacks.
The hacker also explains that he can conduct a spy campaign and track online activity. Among the services that he offers, there is also the collection of personal information about any person, in any case, each tactic can be performed with an hourly rate, which is about $ 100, of course, prices depend on many factors, including the complexity of the task.
Of course, payments are anonymous and made through the virtual currency Bitcoin.
While surfing the Tor network, the author found several black markets and forums offering hacking services:
Hacker for Hire (http://hacker4hhjvre2qj.onion/) is one of them.
The site offers a wide range of services, from cyber fraud to hacking services. It is curious to note that the website operator also offers both offensive and defensive services, the specific services are actually targeted at cybercrime victims.
Another website that offers many illegal products is Hell.
http://hell2bjhfxm77htq.onion
The web portal has several sections related to hacking tools, tutorials, and of course, it is filled with hackers who offer their services. In the Jobs section there are various suggestions for hacking services, the author contacted some of the alleged hackers negotiating the following prices for some specific tasks.
There are several hackers on the Tor network offering their services using their own websites, black markets are the preferred choice to contact and hire a hacker. The main benefits of hiring a black market hacker are:
- The ability to check the hacker's reputation and abilities.
- Availability of escrow services that protect both buyers and sellers.
For this reason, the author decided to research some of the most popular black markets looking for hackers to hire. He started his short tour on the black market:
TheRealDeal (http://trdealmgn4uvm42g.onion)
Which recently emerged in the underground community to provide both sellers and buyers with a privileged environment to commercialize exploit kits and hacker services. The author found among the hackers who offer their services the ability to pay for a DDoS attack or for setting up malware, and in TheRealDeal market, you can pay for various types of tutorials. Below is a table listing offers that have been received from hackers or who have posted their offers on the marketplace.
Another popular black market is Nucleus:
But at least 2 more mirrors are dedicated to serving visitors), this market is more focused on products (e.g. malware, stolen card data, etc.) than service. The author tried to contact some vendors, and only one of them offered him hacking services to hack the server or compromise a specific user who steals his data with a targeted attack.
The following table lists some of the products / services available on the Nucleus Marketplace.
What can we find on the Dark Web?
The deep web is a "hidden reality" in which all kinds of illegal products and services can be found. Black Markets are places in the Dark where sellers offer their illegal goods and services, including drugs, weapons, counterfeit goods, stolen goods, credit cards, access to bank accounts, fake IDs and related documents, various accounts, human trafficking. authorities, hacking services, and killers.
The hacking market on the Dark Web is thriving on the anonymity offered by the communication protocols implemented on this part of the network. The newest trend seen by security experts is the selling model known as “hacking as a service”.
Adding technical support to hacking tools (i.e. friendly interfaces, email and IRC) reduces the complexity of their use, for example, according to this model example, ransomware kits are offered, allowing anyone to commit crimes for as little as 50 euros.
The most common services available in the hacker underground are:
- Hire an hacker
- Botnet
- exploit kit
- 0day
- Crypter
- DDoS
- Doxing
- Spam
- Malware
- Money laundering services
Exploit kits are still sold in their entirety (including source code), but still have an exorbitant price tag ($ 20-30K), which is why users rent them for a limited period ($ 500 per month). A similar approach is applied to zero-day exploits, which can cost up to hundreds of thousands of euros (MS-15-034).
What are the main players in Deep Web hacking?
There are several hacker communities on the Deep Web that are accessible through both anonymous protocols and Clearnet. Many of them are invite-only, which leads to an exception, they usually focus on specific topics (for example Trojanforge: malware and reverb), but there are also general communities (hackforum) whose members solve various issues related to the world of hacking. except for carding, fraud or "financial" crimes.
There are many forums and chat rooms on the Dark Net dedicated to Black Hat activities, but the sale of products and services is done through black markets to reach a wide audience. The main players in the deep web hacker attack market are:
- Agora - TOR
- silkroadreloaded - I2P - Potentially dying due to the transition from TOR I2P, resulting in lower overall consumption
- TheRealDeal - TOR - Recently in the spotlight due to the possibility of buying 0day exploits
- DreamMarket - TOR
- MRNiceGuy - TOR - Clone of the original
- Outlaw - TOR
- MajesticGarden - TOR
What are the risks for buyers?
Black markets hosted on the darknet increase the safety of both sellers and buyers, making them difficult for law enforcement to track. In any case, there is a specific risk that users will fall prey to a website being used by law enforcement as decoys.
Another risk for buyers is that law enforcement agencies may intercept a shipment of real and illegal goods (such as drugs or weapons).
How does the payment take place, what does the buyer guarantee?
Trust is one of the main problems of hacking communities, in the black market, as in any other market, operators have implemented a reputation mechanism based on customer feedback. Some black markets are implementing BTC MultiSignature based escrow mechanisms to protect both sellers and buyers.
Payment is usually made using a virtual currency scheme such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, operators rarely allow PayPal, Western Union and other payment systems.
Conclusion
As we've seen, hiring a hacker in the many black markets available on the Deep Web isn't all that difficult, especially when someone needs simple tasks. A completely different situation arises when you are looking for a professional team of hackers to hire - these groups usually use different channels to reach a limited number of clients.
Another consideration to keep in mind is that most of the services offered through several hidden services are scams and in many cases hackers are unable to complete their tasks.
For this reason, users who intend to hire a hacker usually refer to black markets because of the reputation mechanisms they implement.
Another point to pay attention to is that prices for various hacking services are quite similar in different forums or in hacker communities, which may allow us to track the evolution and trends in the hacker underground.
For example, price fluctuations can be caused by the sudden appearance of a product in a criminal ecosystem. The availability of large amounts of data associated with a data breach could lead to a decrease in the price of a single record and support the hacker's proposal against the customers of the affected organizations.
This information is extremely valuable for law enforcement agencies and for those who constantly monitor criminal groups and their activities.
