Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence experts analysed botnet sales on the dark web and shadow Telegram channels and discovered that attackers can acquire ready-made solutions starting at US99. Besides one-time purchases, botnets can be hired or acquired as leaked source code for a symbolic price. In some cases, custom botnet development is also available.
A botnet is a network of devices infected with malware, ranging from smart toothbrushes to advanced industrial Internet devices that attackers use to organise automated mass attacks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service DDoS attacks.
Mirai is one of the most infamous examples of a botnet. It scans the Internet for IoT devices with weak default passwords, uses a set of known default credentials to gain access, and infects them. The infected devices then become part of the botnet, which can be controlled remotely to perform various types of cyberattacks, explains Alisa Kulishenko, security analyst at Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence.
Botnets like Mirai are created by cybercriminals to sell and have individually tailored infection processes, malware types, infrastructure, and evasion techniques. The fraudsters sell them to other criminals on the shadow market, with botnet prices depending on quality this year the lowest offers started at US99 and the highest reached US10 000.
