Cybercriminal Underground

This Trend Micro research looks into the emergence of the “mobile underground” in China as a result of the market's shift to mobile platforms, including mobile underground products and services.

Different cybercriminal underground markets offer a distinct list of tools and services. Here's a list of known products and services that are available in the Chinese, Russian, and Brazilian underground.

According to the FBI, in the two and a half years of Silk Road’s existence, the site has generated sales totaling over 9.5 million Bitcoins and collected commissions on those sales of over 600,000 Bitcoins. Read more about Deep Web marketplaces here.

Over several months, our researchers monitored the Chinese mobile cybercriminal underground to see what kind of wares cybercriminals were trading. What they found was a diverse set of offerings created to suit different purposes.

A Russian cybercrime ring known to have been running underground operations since 2004 allegedly stole 1.2 billion Internet usernames and passwords from 420,000 websites, including Fortune 500 companies.

These virtual black markets mostly thrive in forums or chat rooms where numerous cybercriminals act as anonymous businessmen who trade goods and services to make profit. And much like typical businessmen, they adhere to specific business models.

Established back in 2004, the Russian underground market was the first to offer crimeware to cybercriminals. Up to this day, it continues to thrive and evolve despite the evident drop in market prices.

An interactive page that shows the different international black markets that trade stolen data, what types of data can be bought and sold, and at what price.

Silk Road 2.0 launched while Ross Ulbricht, the accused operator of the first Silk Road Marketplace, remains in trial in New York. Silk Road 2.0 offers more secure options.