Cybercrime is growing rapidly these days, not only at the lower levels, but also at the official levels. No one is safe these days, including government officials, students, banks, and financial departments.
It is becoming increasingly common for cybercrime groups to operate as businesses. They utilize the latest technology to collect all the details efficiently.
Currently, the group is advertising jobs on the dark web that offer developers and hackers great monthly packages, paid sick leave, and paid vacation.
Approximately 200,000 job ads were posted on 155 dark websites between March 2020 and June 2022, according to Kaspersky news.
To entice software developers, APT and hacking groups offer market-competitive salary packages.
According to the analysis, the highest paying job available at job posting is $20,000. While ads for capable attack specialists topped at $15,000/month.
Data analysts, malware and tool developers, initial compromise actors, website and phishing email designers, reverse engineers, IT administrators, and malware testers are also in demand by hacking groups.
The expected salary for IT professionals ranged between $1,300 and $4,000/month. Whereas the designers earn the lowest wages and reverse engineers earn the highest.
Further, a third of the job postings are for full-time employment, and the remaining three are for flexible hours. As well, it has come to light that remote workers receive paid sick leave and vacations. This indicates that dark web employees care about their employees and do what they can to keep them on board.
This strategy will help to attract unemployed IT professionals still looking for work by offering attractive packages compared to similar positions in legal job markets.
Despite the benefits of working for a dark web employer, the risks still outweigh them, warns Kaspersky.
In the absence of a legally executed employment contract, employees are relieved of their responsibility. They could be left unpaid, framed, or involved in fraudulent schemes.
During Q1 2020, the most advertisements were posted. This coincided with the massive changes brought about by COVID-19. A second spike occurred between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022.
Hiring Procedures That Are Unique
Recruiters will determine a candidate’s competency level through a test used as part of the hiring criteria.
Recruiters may also examine a candidate’s CV and interview them.
As a typical example discovered by Kaspersky, one job posting guaranteed to pay applicants $300 in BTC for a test.
Another job posting was seen by the analysts, where the candidate is supposed to encrypt a test DLL in 24 hours, making it fully undetectable by AVs.
Additionally, cybercrime enterprises adopt business-like operations, and the dark web presents itself as a recruiting tool for threat actors seeking a stable income. In these challenging times, IT professionals find these jobs as lifelines during these crucial times.
We can easily witness that at this dark time when people are facing political unrest, poor economies, or a lack of job opportunities in their region, the jobless people find these jobs as a blessing for them.
It is essential to understand the risks associated with working for a dark web employer as it involves different activities, such as scams to getting framed, arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned.