back to article Security researchers unpick botnet economics

The economics of botnets and the sale of stolen information in underground bazaars have been detailed in greater depth then ever before in new research from Kasperky Lab. Infecting PCs with strains of malware that leave them open to remote control by hackers has been the mainstay of various forms of cybercrime - spamming, …

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  1. Steve Evans

    A question I've often wondered...

    If you're in the market for a load of credit card details how do you go about it?

    Surely you won't want to give your card details to a shadowy figure who makes a living from selling card details!

    And as the shadowy figure selling card details, would you trust a prospective customer who is after card details, to be purchasing with a genuine one?

    So how is the financial transaction carried out? The shadowy figures obviously needs this to be unregulated and untraceable or they'd get caught/shutdown.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    disable autoplay?

    When was the last time we saw a virus out in the wild that spread by removable media?

    surely that's a rather redundant bit of advice? I'm fairly certain that any freebie AV software would spot such an old virus practically before you put the disk in the drive.

    Oh, with the exception of that Intervideo DRM infection malicious turdware that keeps cropping up on DVDs.

    Mines the one with the actual Plays For Sure advert-free XVID logo on the disc

  3. Ed Blackshaw Silver badge
    Pint

    Baron Samedi?

    Has someone been working their way through the works of William Gibson by any chance?

  4. Emo

    Re: A question I've often wondered...

    Probably though some sort of escrow service.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re:Disable Autoplay

    Try conficker??

  6. Apocalypse Later

    @disable autoplay?

    For "removable media" read USB memory keys. Conficker spreads on those, and that is a current or at least recent threat.

  7. blewis

    Re: A question I've often wondered...

    There was another underground economy study recently that looks at the cheating you describe. The main conclusion is the reason creds sell for pennies is that the vast majority of what's offered for sale is junk offered by rippers.

    http://www.darkreading.com/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217701656

  8. Joey

    Re: A question I've often wondered...

    Western Union is the favoured way to be paid for scammers. Western Union, it would seem, are quite happy to take the business with minimal security.

  9. Chronos
    Terminator

    Re: Baron Samedi?

    The master of the dead in Haitian Vodou? Quite appropriate for the controllers of zombified machines, no?

    The Matrix Loa were aspects or fragments of the resultant Neuromancer/Wintermute entity, if one reads between the lines, which leads to another thought provoked: Perhaps botnets could be the accidental route to autonomous artificial intelligence, not that we'll likely appreciate the results given their origins...

    Hmm, joke alert or ROTM?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Steve Evans

    Bot herders often accept payment via various wire services. There are other means, but this is a particularly popular one.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    @Steve Evans

    EGold, WU, Liberty Reserve, WMZ

    Mostly Gold transfer services.

    Most verified traders use the website's escrow service.

  12. lukewarmdog
    Big Brother

    EU Gold

    Can't use that, it has gone the way of Napster.

  13. masterpikey

    re: A question I've often wondered

    escrow, western union or any other money transfer service, paypal, c.o.d., direct account to account transfer, postal orders, sure the swiss could give you a few options (more if your a nazi), and more that i cant b arsed to list

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