Back in the good old days—defined in this case as circa 2006—hackers actually had to be fairly bright and possess decent programming skills to wreak any kind of meaningful havoc online.
Now, thanks to the proliferation of cheap and easy-to-use Web-based malware kits, just about anyone can hang a Black Hat shingle and try to steal users’ online passwords and banking information.
No fewer than a dozen new malware kits ranging in price from a couple hundred bucks to as much as $1,000 have been discovered in the past six months, according to the latest report from security software vendor M86 Security.
As eSecurity Planet discovered, the scary part is that most of these DIY kits are only just starting points for serious hackers looking to steal people’s identities, money and reputation with just a few keystrokes.
Exploit kits such as WebAttacker have been widely available on the Internet for about four years but thanks to their relatively low prices and the ease with which hackers can use them to steal data and passwords, they have become the Web apps of choice for the Black Hat set.
Security software provider M86 Security this week unveiled its latest study of these so-called do-it-yourself exploit kits. To no one’s surprise, it’s a booming growth industry with more than a dozen new kits making their way onto the market in just the past six years.
