There are multiple underground markets on the darknet where one can buy drugs, guns, malware, stolen credit cards, or credentials to various services, such as social media accounts and Netflix accounts. But, what if someone wants to orchestrate a customized attack against a certain organization or an individual? In that case the darknet offers another service - hackers for hire.
Experts at Binary Defense conducted an interesting research of the most notorious markets of this kind. The researchers noted that the web sites advertising hackers for hire (HfH) are easy to find.
“Who would need or use this service, and how easy it is to find a service like this? A likely buyer would be anyone who does not have the technical ability to perform the types of attacks listed below, or someone who is angry at a person or a company and is willing to pay someone to attack them. If they know where to look, these services can be quite easy to find,” Binary Defense explained in its report.
According to the report, the most prevalent HfH groups include:
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Hack Group
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Rent-A-Hacker
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Hacker Group
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Black Hat Journal
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Hacker for Hire
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Stroller
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Hackse
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Xhacker
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Digital Hackers
Services offered by HfH groups include social media hacking with several options for a buyer to choose. These include theft of social media accounts’ passwords, or account take over. In the latter case, a hacker will post things that the customer has asked them to publish, or send private massages to the users on the target’s friends list intended to destroy their relationship.
“The Hacker for Hire pages do not go into detail on how they break into the accounts or how they retrieve the passwords. More than likely, they are doing this by using credential harvesters, phishing emails, or trying leaked passwords that might have been exposed in a third-party data breach,” the report said.
Hackers also offer to change grades on schools and universities, steal the teacher’s email password and change details like grades or class schedules. Many HfH groups are also offering hacking courses for those who want to learn how to hack on their own. The courses range from defacements to credential harvesting with step-by-step instructions or videos provided.
As for more “practical” staff, offered services include the launching of DDoS attack (starting from $99), destroying somebody’s life (from $699), or damaging company’s reputation (from $899). The latter services include bad reviews, negative ad campaigns, site defacement, site takedown, and much more.
