How do cybercriminals make money?


The global economy is undergoing a digital revolution as the majority of what we do is now done online, from shopping for groceries to paying payments. Criminals are only natural to follow suit. Criminals see cybercrime as one of the easiest methods to gain money when they evaluate the economics of what they do.

Extortion is a simple technique for a hacker to monetise stolen information and it provides the quickest path from crimes to cash. In addition to extortion, criminals can profit through phoney auctions, identity theft, and the sale of stolen information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and account passwords.

What is a Cybercrime?

Cybercrime is a crime perpetrated with the use of a computer and a network.

  • It's conceivable that the computer was utilised in a criminal act or that it was the intended victim. Cybercrime can jeopardise a person's security and financial well-being.

  • When sensitive information is intercepted or released, whether lawfully or illegally, there are several privacy issues. Cybercrime is committed by both governmental and non-governmental entities on a global scale, including espionage, money theft, and other cross-border crimes.

  • According to a survey published in 2014, the worldwide economic impact is projected to be $445 billion per year. According to a 2016 research by Cybersecurity Ventures, worldwide cybercrime losses might cost up to $6 trillion per year by 2021 and $10.5 trillion per year by 2025.

Since now we know that cybercrime holds an immense treasure for cybercriminals, let us look at how cybercriminals make money?

How Do Cybercriminals Make Money?

What cybercriminals do to generate money is based on what has worked in the past. Hackers experiment with many sorts of cybercrime in order to figure out which ones are the most profitable.

  • Extortion is the most common method used by hackers to monetise their stolen data. For years, extortion has been a successful kind of cybercrime. Apart from extortion, hackers may gain money in a variety of ways.

  • The easiest and most popular way for hackers to make money is by stealing your credit card information. Credit cards are widely used on the internet for purchases, memberships, and money transfers, among other things. Credit card information is obtained via hacking databases containing stored credit card information or intercepting data while a transaction is in progress.

  • On the dark web, some hackers gain money by selling important information. Compromising secret business databases is difficult, but it may also be rewarding. To access hundreds of millions of records containing personal information, hackers must first breach the different protection levels. This information is sold on the dark web or to private individuals.

  • Botnets are frequently in the headlines. Botnets may be used in a variety of ways by hackers to gain money. One of the most prevalent methods for hackers to make money is through sending spam. People have grown more cyber-aware, resulting in a low spam email click rate. Despite this, spam campaigns continue to generate millions of dollars in revenue for hackers.

Updated on: 07-Feb-2022

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