McAfee report indicates Dark Web to be the new refuge for cyber attackers

Cybercriminals are now settling into the “Dark Web”, which is a place where they rest, improve and share out malware for online attacks. This has most recently been concluded by the researchers at McAfee, after studying in detail a huge data breach which occurred and managed to impact 110 million US customers in the retail segment, which might just be the trailer of the “big” picture hidden inside.

The threat assessment published recently unveiled that buying and selling this type of malware gets pretty easy in the “Dark Web” marketplaces.

The researchers at McAfee also concluded that the malware behind these target attacks made use of relatively unsophisticated technologies, which might have been bought from the Cybercrime-as-a-Service community after which it might have been tailored specifically to make this attacks happen.

The report even showed that the cyber attackers who stole this data have also the details of some 40 million credit card numbers, which are expected to have stolen in groups of between one million to four million at a time.

The last quarter of the year 2013, meanwhile, is remembered as the time when cybercrime turned into a reality for more number of people than before.

The cyber attacks happened at a time when most people were busy in the holiday shopping spree and right when the industry anticipated the consumers to feel secured and confident about their online buying habit. The impact of this attack created an effect on users coming from both home and the business environment.

These attacks clearly depict the onset of a new age where both the “Dark Web” and Cybercrime as a service will get triggered. The actors behind Dark Web seem to be working with ease, just like they do at any online business. This class of attack must be identified as being much away from advanced.

Meanwhile, there is an off the shelf exploit kit from the BlackPOS malware family, available for sale, which can be easily altered and redistributed with little changes in programming and by those who have little knowledge about malware functionality.

The cyber thieves who make use of the malware can easily move to the black market of credit card, which possesses a well-structured hierarchy and which makes rooms for a functional and disciplined marketplace. These thieves can further pay for the credit cards which have been stolen by making use of one of the many virtual currencies available, an example is the Bitcoin.

The breaches, in the meantime will create long-lasting repercussions. There is the need of making amendments in the security approaches and compliance mandates and also in the applicable lawsuits.

The big lesson to be learnt here is that we have a healthy and rapidly growing cybercrime industry which has played a major role in enabling and monetizing the outcome of these cyber attacks.

The report by McAfee also indicated a rise in the mobile malware, as increase in the number of smartphone users has been noticed. The number of new mobile malware collected in 2013 is 2.47 million among which 744,000 were in the last quarter alone.

The writer is an McAfee technical support expert at SupportMart - a Global Company offering technical support for computers. Call 1-800-793-7521 , connect with a live technician remotely, and get your issue resolved instantly while speaking on the McAfee Tech Support Number .