(Bloomberg) -- Cyber-security firm Kaspersky Labsays it has uncovered an online marketplace where criminalsfrom all over the world sell access to more than 70,000 hackedcorporate and government servers for as little as $6 each.
|Kaspersky discovered the forum after a tip from a Europeaninternet service provider. The market, called xDedic,is operated by hackers, who are probably Russian speaking, that have ditchedtheir traditional business model of just selling passwords and havegraduated instead to earning a commission from each transaction ontheir black market.
|Marketplace similar to EBay
"It’s a marketplace similar to EBay where people can tradeinformation about cracked servers," said Costin Raiu, head ofglobal research at Kaspersky Lab. "The forum owners verify thequality of the hacked data and charge a commission of 5% fortransactions."
An aerospace company from the U.S., oil firms from China and theUnited Arab Emirates, a chemical company from Singapore and banksfrom several different countries are among companies whose serverswere compromised by xDedic, Kaspersky said, declining to discloseany names.
|As businesses ranging from banks to retailers go digital,hacking is getting more advanced and is often instrumental totraditional crime. Markets offering criminals both the tools tohack into networks and the spoils of successful attacks such ascredit card data are growing in size and complexity.
|U.S. authorities worked with counterparts from more than a dozenother countries in 2015 to dismantle a sophisticated computer forumknown as Darkode, described as an online, invitation-only marketfor cyber-criminals to buy and sell products for infectingelectronic devices.
|Even low-skilled criminals are involved
Cybercrime services allow even low-skilled criminals to useacquired malicious software to attack their targets, Kasperskysaid. People who bought access to servers on xDedic used theinformation for denial-of-service attack on businesses or to stealcredit-card details from servers connected to systems such ascomputer terminals in shops, according to Raiu. Some have usedcompromised servers to mine bitcoins, he said. The marketplace isavailable on the internet, requiring users to register and deposit$10 in bitcoins.
“It wasn’t only government networks, but also corporations,banks, research institutions, telecommunication companies, to namea few," Raiu said.
|Related: 6 things agents need to know about basic securityfor Cyber coverage
|Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.
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