Blocker, the mobile ransomware, costs an average of $1,000 in purchasing and distributing malignant code. But its returns are so much higher.(image: Kobizmedia/Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Dec.2 (Korea Bizwire) – A study said online crimes can earn more than 20 times of profit from the cost of attack. That’s why hackers and unscrupulous operators on the Internet keep springing up despite the high cost and the risk of getting caught. Kaspersky Lab said this on December 1 in a report.
For example, it costs an average of US$150 to make a phishing page and send mass spam email to lure Internet users to the sham site. If the perpetrators can get 100 victims with the scam, however, they can net $10,000 easily by selling their sensitive data to marketers.
Blocker, the mobile ransomware, costs an average of $1,000 in purchasing and distributing malignant code. But its returns are so much higher. Although varying depending on case, at least $20,000 can be earned from about 100 victims.
Those who want to make more money use Trojan horse malware for banking institution attacks. Online crime perpetrators on average spend $3,000 on exploit and spam mail distribution and earn up to $72,000. The average loss for individual victims is estimated at $722.
Lee Chang-hoon, Kaspersky Lab Korea president, said, “It is so easy for anyone to buy malware in a variety of hacker forums on the Internet. They are quite cheap and easy to get a hand on. Cyber crime doesn’t require high technology and all you need is buy malware for your purpose. Internet users must be aware of the risk and take precaution.”
By M.H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
