Cybercrime is on the rise and no one is safe these days. The dark web is home to a growing number of job opportunities related to cybersecurity. According to recent Kaspersky research, developers are in high demand in the cybercrime underworld.
Developers in the cybercrime underworld are in high demand
According to the report, 155 forums are advertising jobs on the dark web job market between January 2020 and June 2022. The study revealed an alarming spike in March 2020. Kaspersky says this is likely due to the lockdowns and restrictions imposed by the pandemic, as a result of which many look for other work.
In a period of more than two years, almost 200,000 work-related advertisements have been posted on the forums. Of these, 41% were placed in 2020. The number of advertisements placed in the first months of 2021 fell. Later, the ads started to rise again.
In an effort to attract hackers, these potentially illegal roles promised a number of terms to appeal to the modern digital nomad, including remote work (45%), full-time work (34%), and a flexible schedule (33%). The report highlights the importance of remote working in these types of roles, as anonymity is a must for cybercriminals.
Moreover, these advertisements also promised a fixed salary. Despite a fairly low number of advertisements, the average monthly salary for a reverse engineer was $4,000. Attacks and developers were also promised an average monthly salary of $2,500 and $2,000 respectively.
Not all job postings were necessarily criminal or illegal, Kaspersky researchers noted. Most dark web employers offer semi-legal and illegal jobs. There are advertisements with legal vacancies that comply with national legislation.
Also see: Nearly 35,000 PayPal accounts hacked using Credential stuffing
