How valuable is your machine to an attacker?
Posted: 15 Aug 2011, 17:59
SourceNetwork World wrote:Denizens of the malware underworld who sell access to compromised computers do so at varying rates depending on where the machines are located, researchers told the Usenix Security Symposium this week.
The researchers followed what they called the pay-per-install (PPI) industry, which obtains infected machines from which malware can be launched and sells access to these machines to parties looking for someplace to execute malicious code. Sometimes the PPI sellers hire middlemen to supply the compromised machines, and the PPI dealer retails them.
The PPI sellers sell access to compromised machines by region, charging more for those in the U.S. than for those in Asia, for example. The going rates are $110 to $180 per 1,000 machines in the U.S. and United Kingdom, $20 to $60 for countries in the rest of Europe and less than $10 for anywhere else.
Not really surprising, really.