Larger winnings for underground skills competitions are attracting sophisticated crime groups.
White hats aren’t alone in holding hacking contests. Russian-language cybercriminals are known for running similar competitions on underground forums. However, an analysis of Dark Web activity has uncovered a trend towards offering increasingly high-stakes prizes during such battles. At the same time, increasingly sophisticated participants are throwing their hats into the mix — notably, the operators behind the Sodinokibi (a.k.a. REvil) ransomware.
For instance, a current hacking competition on the illicit forum known as XSS offers members the chance to win a share of $15,000 in return for original articles containing proof-of-concept videos or original code, according to a Digital Shadows report, released on Thursday.
“Since its relaunch as XSS [in 2018], the former Damagelabs has organized three articles competitions, all with four- or five-figure prize funds,” the firm noted.
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