Cybercriminals' profits can be up to 20 times greater than the cost of their attacks, according to data collected by Kaspersky Lab. As part of their research, the company's experts compared the cost of the tools most commonly used by hackers with the money they extract from a successful malicious operation.
“Buying malware is not a problem. It is relatively easy to find such tools on various hacker forums. Also, their cost is relatively cheap, which makes them attractive. A cybercriminal who follows this path does not need to have any special skills, as he can buy a “ready-to-use” package for a predetermined price and launch attacks at will. Therefore, users need to be especially careful to ensure that they do not lose their money or data. They should also protect their devices and the online transactions they perform with them, using a specialized solution, such as Kaspersky Internet Security – multi–device, for example,” said Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab.
For example, creating a phishing website that mimics a popular social media site and developing a mass spam email chain with a link leading to the fake website currently costs an average of $150. However, if criminals defraud 100 online users, they can earn up to $10,000 from selling sensitive data. Victims, in turn, lose valuable contacts, personal photos and messages.
A mobile Trojan blocker is much more expensive, as the purchase and distribution of the malware costs $1,000 on average. However, the “return” is also much higher. The prices set by attackers for unblocking a smartphone start from $10 and go up to $200. This means that they can earn up to $20,000 from 100 potential victims.
Cybercriminals can earn the same amount of money using encrypted ransomware, but their “initial investment” will be twice as much (around $2,000). Users’ losses will also be higher, since the minimum “ransom” amount that crooks demand to decrypt their stolen data is usually $100.
For the biggest profits, fraudsters are looking for banking Trojans that directly target online users’ money. By spending around $3,000 on a “package” of malware, exploits, and spam emails, cybercriminals can earn up to $72,000. The average loss per victim is $722.
