Criminal groups are selling access to the computer networks of financial companies such as Bank of America Corp. as well as hacking tools aimed at those companies, according to a British researcher who browsed dark web marketplaces.
Michael McGuire, a professor of criminology at the University of Surrey, had joined several dark web groups and discovered tools for sale that were capable of stealing login credentials from many businesses. In addition to credentials , passwords and PINs of Qatar National Bank customers were found.
Their findings, published today in a study, offer a close look at the dark web, the part of the internet that requires specialized software or authorized access and is not accessible by conventional search engines. There are many sites on the dark web that serve as a marketplace for hackers who sell their services and the data they have previously stolen.
The scale of data breaches has increased in recent years as criminal hacking groups have become increasingly adept at penetrating corporate networks and gathering information. Often this data is then used for identity theft and credit card fraud. In other cases, access to a network is used to infect with ransomware that encrypts content using a key. The hackers then demand a ransom to be paid for the key to be delivered.
In the case of Bank of America, the material McGuire found to be available was fake websites that could be used to collect customer data in phishing attacks. In these attacks, a customer is sent an email that appears to come from the bank, asking them to click on a link to access their account. The link takes them to the fake website and captures their username and password.
