The profits of digital criminals can be up to 20 times higher than the cost of their attacks, according to data gathered by experts Kaspersky Lab. In the context of a survey that has been carried out, the company's experts have compared the cost of the tools most frequently used by hacker in relation to the money they extract through a successful malicious business.
"Buying malware is not a problem. It is relatively easy to find such tools in various hacker forums. Also, their cost is relatively cheap, which makes them attractive. A digital criminal who follows this path does not need to have special skills, as he can buy a "ready to use" package at a predetermined price and launch attacks at will. Therefore, users must be very careful to ensure that they do not lose their money or data. They should also protect their devices and the electronic transactions they make with them, using a specialized solution such as Kaspersky Internet Security - Multi-device, for example"Said Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert of Kaspersky Lab.
Ενδεικτικά, η δημιουργία μιας ιστοσελίδας phishing που μιμείται ένα δημοφιλές μέσο κοινωνικής δικτύωσης και η ανάπτυξη μιας αλυσίδας μαζικής spam αλληλογραφίας, με link που θα οδηγεί στην πλαστή ιστοσελίδα, κοστίζει σήμερα $150 κατά μέσο όρο. Ωστόσο, αν οι εγκληματίες εξαπατήσουν 100 online χρήστες, μπορεί να κερδίσουν μέχρι και $10.000 από την πώληση ευαίσθητων δεδομένων. Τα θύματα, με τη σειρά τους, χάνουν πολύτιμες επαφές, προσωπικές φωτογραφίες και messages.
A mobile Trojan blocker is much more costly, as buying and distributing malware costs $ 1.000 on average. However, "performance" is also much higher. The prices that attackers have set to unlock a smartphone lock start at $ 10 and reach up to $ 200. This means they can earn up to $ 20.000 from 100 potential victims.
Digital criminals can earn the same amount of money using encrypted ransomware, but their "initial investment" will be double (about $ 2.000). User losses will also be higher, since the minimum amount of "ransom" that fraudsters ask for to decipher the data they have extracted is usually in $ 100.
For very large profits, fraudsters look for banking Trojans that directly target online users' money. Spending around $3.000 on a malware "bundle", exploit and spam mail, digital criminals can earn up to $72.000. The average loss per victim is $722.
