Trustwave: Exploit kit and Ransomware are the most profitable industries in the world, yielding 1425% profits to crooks.
Evidence coming from Trustwave shows that blackhats using Exploit kits can make money very easily by serving ransomware, Trojans, and ad stealers to their victims.
Firm says scammers could make $84.000 a month using CTB Locker ransomware, RIG exploit kit, stolen Web traffic, and malware crypting packer services.
"It is an excellent investment, although it is unethical and illegal," the company said in its annual report.PDF].
The scammers' costs each month are: $ 3000 for a "trusted" ransomware, $ 1.800 for a hacked high-traffic website, $ 500 for the RIG Exploit kit, and $ 600 for anti-virus crypters.
So with $ 5.900 in "business" expenses, they can hit too many victims at once, or even select individuals and businesses aiming for higher profits.
Για όσους δεν γνωρίζουν τα Exploit kit είναι δημοφιλή off-the-shelf hacking εργαλεία που έχουν την ικανότητα να στοχεύουν μια σειρά από τις τελευταίες zero-day ευπάθειες σε πλατφόρμες όπως Adobe Flash, Java και Silverlight.
Trustwave determines the rogue profits based on an average of ransomers demanding their victims (300 dollars), though this amount often blows 5000 dollars on smaller scale and more targeted attacks.
Researchers recently reported in congress security agency AusCERT, that a retail company had paid up to $10000 to decrypt important files that could not be lost.
All the above information demonstrates the importance of a basic rule for the security of electronic data: Always keep backups and back up again when you're done.
