UK and Australian Zombies Pay Better

Right, if you’re a cybercriminal that wants to make some cash on the side, you’re not a stranger to the way ‘install’ selling works. It’s really not that difficult, come to think of it. The big time spyware authors are willing to pay scores of dough for having their malicious code spread to PCs all over the world, and the best way to do it is by contacting a webmaster or the owner of a botnet. It’s a win-win situation for both parties, one will start getting paid for what he was already doing, and the other will double and triple the rate at which its software is distributed.

Did I say triple? I meant exponentially, because in the particular case of Trojan horse malware, they redirect the zombie computer to download additional code and start spamming it until further notice. But wait, there’s more! The geo-positioning of the infected PC is very important to the software company, and they are not willing to pay the same amount for any random zombie computer.

MessageLabs found such a price list, and it clearly shows that installing spyware on 1,000 machines in Australia nets the webmaster or botnet farmer $100, $50 for the United States based hosts and only $3 for Asian machines. Nevertheless, it’s a profitable business that hasn’t reached its apex yet. Imagine what were to happen if the really big botnets joined the game. Storm, having a network of somewhere between 1 million and 50 million infected PCs according to specialists, would instantly turn into the proverbial golden fish for its owners and / or coders. But enough about that.

A Russian based site that has been into the ‘install’ selling business for years is still looking for new partners: "Anybody can work with our partnership program InstallsCash! You have to do only one thing! Put a short one line iframe code on ur page(s) and START MAKING MONEY! You won't lose your unique visitors with us! You can also have your own exe." Isn’t that sick?


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