An expanding network of cybercrime marketplaces is making it easier than ever to become a professional fraudster, posing unprecedented cybersecurity threats worldwide, experts warn. Cybercriminals are often portrayed in popular media as rogue and highly skilled individuals, wielding coding and hacking abilities from a dimly lit room.
But such stereotypes are becoming outdated. Today, the barriers to entry have come down "quite significantly," Court said. For example, obtaining personal data, such as email addresses, and sending them spam messages en masse β one of the oldest online scams in the book β has never been easier. Cybersecurity experts say the change is due to advances in scam technology and the growth of organized online markets where cybercrime expertise and resources are bought and sold.
Driving that trend has been the emergence of global underground markets that offer "cybercrime-as-a-service" or "CaaS," through which vendors charge customers for different types of malicious tools and cybercrime services, he added. Examples of CaaS include ransomware and hacking tools, botnets for rent, stolen data, and anything else that may aid cybercriminals in their illicit activities.
CaaS is often hosted on markets in the "darknet" β a part of the internet that uses encryption technology to protect the anonymity of users. Examples include Abacus Market, Torzon Market and Styx, though the top markets often change as authorities shut them down and new ones emerge. Burnside adds that the criminal gangs running CaaS services and markets have begun to operate like "legitimate organizations in their structure and processes.
Meanwhile, vendors on these illicit exchanges tend to accept payments only in cryptocurrency in attempts to remain anonymous, obscure proceeds and evade detection. Silk Road , an infamous dark web marketplace that was shut down by law enforcement in , is recognized by many as one of the earliest large-scale applications of cryptocurrency. Though the use of cryptocurrencies in the cybercrime market can help obscure the identities of participants, it can also make their activities more traceable on the blockchain, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain research firm that traces illicit crypto transactions.
