{"id":9892,"date":"2013-02-28T01:06:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T08:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.webroot.com\/?p=9892"},"modified":"2018-01-30T12:25:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:25:41","slug":"how-much-does-it-cost-to-buy-10000-u-s-based-malware-infected-hosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https://www.webroot.com/blog/2013\/02\/28\/how-much-does-it-cost-to-buy-10000-u-s-based-malware-infected-hosts\/","title":{"rendered":"How much does it cost to buy 10,000 U.S.-based malware-infected hosts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, we profiled and exposed a newly launched underground service offering access to tens of thousands of malware-infected hosts<\/a><\/strong>, with an emphasis on the fact that U.S.-based hosts were relatively more expensive to acquire, largely due to the fact that U.S.-based users are known to have a higher online purchasing power. How much does it cost to buy 10,000 U.S.-based malware-infected hosts? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n

In this post, I’ll profile yet another service offering access to malware-infected hosts internationally, that’s been operating since the middle of 2012, and despite the fact that it’s official Web site is currently offline, remains in operation until present day.<\/p>\n

More details:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sample screenshot of the underground E-shop selling access to malware-infected hosts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malware_Infected_Hosts_as_a_Service_International_Europe_USA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The service is yet another example of a trend that’s been evident since the early days of the first Malware-as-a-Service underground market offerings, namely, the segmentation and use of perceived pricing schemes when it comes to U.S.-based malware-infected hosts. Naturally, purchasing access to U.S.-based malware-infected hosts is more expensive than, for instance, purchasing access to hosts based in Germany, Canada or the U.K., largely thanks to the fact that a U.S.-based user has a higher online purchasing power compared to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

If a potential cybercriminal wants to spread his fully undetectable piece of malware online, all he has to do is purchase access to the malware-infected hosts offered by such services, allowing virtually anyone access to “managed malware propagation” capabilities. The service that I’m profiling in this post is also attempting to “vertically integrate<\/strong><\/a>” within the cybercrime ecosystem by offering related “value added” services such as access to Socks5 servers, which are in reality malware-hosts converted to be used as anonymization proxies<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The prices are as follows:<\/p>\n