Moscow: Cybercrime criminals have created a shopping portal where servers are sold for as low as $6 and consists of around 70,000 servers. The servers were being sold to nurture cyber-attacks globally. Researchers at Kaspersky Lab, a global computer security firm based in Moscow, said the online forum appears to be run by a Russian speaking group. It offers access to hacked computers owned by governments, companies and universities in 173 countries, unbeknownst to the servers’ legitimate owners.
Starting at $7, buyers can gain access to government servers in several countries, including interior and foreign ministries, commerce departments and several town halls, said Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky’s research and analysis team.
The marketplace goes by the name xDedic. Dedic is short for dedicated, a term used in Russian online forums for a computer under remote control of a hacker and available for use by other parties. XDedic connects sellers of compromised servers with criminal buyers. The market’s owners take a 5 percent up-front fee on all money put into trading accounts, Raiu said.