How Cybercriminals Recruit and Look for Skilled Developers

Recently, an underground Russian forum known as XXS held a competition that sought to give away $15,000 in cash prizes to cybercriminal developers who could write an article or develop a proof-of-concept video on different topics, including searching for zero-day and one-day vulnerabilities and exploiting them, developing crypto algorithms, and how best to conduct an advanced persistent threat attack, according to an analysis conducted by security firm Digital Shadows.

The contest even had a sponsor: The Sodinokibi (also known as REvil) ransomware gang, which currently produces one of the most widespread and destructive crypto-locking malware strains circulating, according to an analysis of cybercriminals’ attacks conducted by Coveware.

Read More