Even among pirates, there are trades more sought after than others. A study analyzed 200,000 job offers posted on forums frequented by malicious hackers. So which job pays the best?
No unemployment among hackers, but good salaries. A report by the Kaspersky company, published on January 30, analyzes job offers for hackers on the dark web. 200,000 advertisements on 155 sites were listed between March 2020 and June 2022. We learn that the leaders of criminal collectives offer monthly salaries, paid leave and sick leave.
20,000 euros per month for a developer
Developers
Not surprisingly, developer positions are among the most sought after – as in many companies – with 61% of offers. These top-paying positions were paid around 20,000 euros per month, while the salaries of the best hacking specialists could reach the 15,000 euros monthly.
Note that the majority of developers are paid around 1,500 euros for various missions. A third of the jobs offered are full-time. These posts often ask to program malware or update them.
The (rare) reverse engineers
The highest median salary benefits reverse engineers: around 4,000 euros per month, responsible for analyzing the structure of a product and then providing a detailed report to hackers – there are however far fewer offers.
A peak in hiring during the covid crisis
Cybercriminal groups are increasingly running their operations like a business, promoting jobs from dark web forums that offer developers and hackers competitive monthly salaries, paid vacations and paid sick leave.
As in the tech industry, the peak of announcements and hiring is in the first quarter of 2020. The covid period has caused an increase in activity, while making many “staff” unavailable.
Recruitment methods are also similar to any hiring in the tech market. In 82% of cases, managers give candidates tests. The latter will have to go through missions of circumvention and encryption of protective measures, for example. They may even be subject to a trial period.
Malware rental — we’re talking about ransomware as service — has established itself as a profitable way for product managers, as well as hackers. The first provides the tool and the second takes full advantage of it to attack. A commission is paid to the managers after the payment of the ransom to the victim. This model has transformed several collectives into perfect software companies. So there are a lot of regular jobs there. The story does not say, however, whether team building activities are offered.
It is recalled that participating in an act of piracy is punishable by law. According to article 323-2 of the Criminal Code, obstructing or distorting the operation of an automated data processing system is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros. »
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