Number of Hacked Networks for Sale on the Dark Web Tripled in September

In September 2020, the number of advertisements on the dark web offering access to hacked IT networks tripled compared to August, according to researchers from KELA.

The experts’ report notes that, in total, cybercriminals are demanding about $505,000 for access to all compromised networks. These offers are posted on popular hacker forums.

About a quarter of all compromised data has already been sold to other cybercriminals who plan to attack the companies affected by the breaches.

Experts believe that vulnerabilities in products from major companies-such as Pulse Secure and Fortinet VPN servers, and Citrix gateways-played a significant role in the surge of hacked network access being sold. Attackers quickly began exploiting these flaws, leading to widespread network compromises.

In addition, hacked RDP and VNC endpoints are also being sold on dark web marketplaces. Most of these endpoints fell into the hands of criminals through brute-force attacks and IoT botnets.

According to KELA, the average price for a hacked network is $4,960, but prices vary widely-from as little as $25 up to $102,000.