How the Malware Marketplace Works

Interested in a career in online crime? There's a thriving underground economy dedicated to supplying you with all the tools you need.

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The Malware Shadow Economy

Today's aspiring Internet crooks don't need any programming skills. They just need to know where to shop. An entire shadow economy has arisen online, with suppliers, service providers, and other middlemen ready--for a fee--to help the unethical entrepreneur. Shown here is an example of how easy it is these days to become a bot herder, someone who sets up a vast network of remote-controlled, bot-infected computers and then rents the malicious services of that zombie army to spammers and other bad guys.