Yes, You Can Outsource Hacking

Have you ever wondered what it takes to hire a hacker to perform a specific task? Thanks to the findings of Comparitech, we can get a look into the average pricings of various hacking services that can be found on the Dark Web. While we would never condone ever taking advantage of such services, it’s a fascinating look into the business of cybercrime, and one that can give you an idea of just how easy and accessible it is for hackers to make your life difficult.

While putting together this list of services, Comparitech examined 12 different hacking sites and 100 different listings. Just like services from legitimate and legal businesses, the services offered by these hacking sites varied in terms of pricing and scope, and their services are often rendered in exchange for Bitcoin or other types of cryptocurrency. Comparitech converted these offerings to USD and found the average cost for the various hacking services available through these sites.

Let’s take a look at some of these services and their price points; again, we are listing these services to show off just how accessible they are, not to encourage you to take advantage of them. We would never condone such behavior!

• Personal Attacks ($551): These types of services might include defamation, financial sabotage, or legal threats.
• Changing Grades ($526): Students who are not happy with their grades pay hackers to infiltrate university grading systems and change their final grades to something higher.
• Website Hacking ($394): These attacks are made against websites or services with the intention of causing trouble or stealing information.
• Computer and Phone Hacking ($343): These attacks are leveraged against computers or phones with the intention of stealing information or deploying other types of threats.
• Social Media Account Hacking ($230): With these services, hackers can spy on or hijack people’s accounts.
• Email Hacking ($241): Hackers can steal access to email and either provide the password to the buyer or do the dirty work themselves.
• Distributed Denial of Service Attacks ($26/hour): One of the more unique services in terms of payment model is DDoS attacks, which launch traffic at a server in hopes of slowing it down or breaking it down entirely. These services are often paid for on a per-month or per-hour basis.

There are, of course, other types of services out there, but these make up the bulk of them (and the most expensive services).

The price points for a lot of these services are so low that businesses and individuals should be concerned about them. Considering the fact that any Average Joe on the Internet can go to the Dark Web and hire a hacker to perform some sort of shady service should be enough of a reason to protect your business from the devastating outcomes associated with these types of attacks. If you want to start taking your network security seriously, then perhaps Directive can lend a hand.

We can equip your business with security solutions designed to protect your organization from a myriad of threats. To learn more, reach out to us at 607.433.2200.