Botnets for hire - $8.94 per hour
Botnets are available for hire for as little as $8.94 per hour, emphasising how little financial muscle or technical expertise is needed to carry out attacks, according to VeriSign iDefense.
The cybersecurity intellgence arm of VeriSign said on Monday that it carried out an online investigation into 25 botnet operators in February, targeting botnet services advertised on three web forums. The study found that hourly botnet rental pricing started at $8.94 (£6.04), while the average price for a 24-hour rental — the sample mean of the highest and lowest advertised prices — was $67.20.
The services advertised a number of attack vectors, including ICMP, SYN, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS and Data. The botnet operators plied their wares via the same techniques as legitimate businesses, such as via forums and banner ads. One botnet operator offered a pricing structure for the takedown of sites that had anti-attack measures intalled.
For more on this story, read Botnets for hire for £6 per hour on ZDNet UK.