Cerber Ransomware Authors Recruiting Rookie Hackers for Higher Monetary Yields

The 1987 film "Wall Street" is a known attempt to persuade its audience temporarily to believe that greed is good. While the Hollywood fantasy has proven to be true for many Wall Street sharks in the past, newfound hackers have enjoyed similar lavish lifestyles where greed has overcome them as it has with the Cerber Ransomware authors.

The authors behind Cerber Ransomware, one of many aggressive file-encrypting threats that infect computers only to hold files for a substantial ransom payment, are looking to recruit unskilled hackers for low compensation that results in generating a higher profit margin.

The security firm Check Point has taken a thorough gander into how Cerber Ransomware works behind the scenes of its outlandish activities of encrypting files and demanding ransom payments from countless victimized computer users.

In Check Point's findings, the Cerber authors are moving towards a model of choosing unskilled hackers to participate in their ransomware schemes expecting as much as 35% of the profits made through Cerber Ransomware's attack activity. The other 65% of the earnings will go to the partners who sign up to launch Cerber campaigns. The stickler here remains to be the fact that the Cerber creators have it easy as they are only responsible for making the ransomware easy to use with a web interface, and not much else. Cerber authors will recruit partners who are willing to spread the ransomware and take on a significant risk of collecting money through the money extortion scheme that ransomware is known to conduct.

The rookie cybercrooks recruited by ransomware authors are responsible for the spread of the threats through aggressive spam email campaigns. The clever service that often recruits partners is done through underground forums, which has recently been exposed through clues picked apart by the data obtained through many IP addresses.

Check Point was able to decode data transferred through the many IP addresses where ransomware authors attempt to recruit rookie hackers. Though, the idea of getting supposed "cheap labor" through recruitment of rookie and unskilled hackers could perpetuate the spread of threats like Cerber and end up generating much more money for its creators than expected. In the end, use of unskilled hackers is just what the authors of Cerber want so they could generate close to $1 million a year, as Check Point suggests in their recent report on the expose of Cerber Ransomware-as-a-Service scheme.

The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) scheme is catching on and so far is granting higher monetary yields for ransomware authors. Moreover, the use of unskilled hackers is pushing the envelope further as revenue numbers reach new heights despite the rate of victimized computer users paying the ransom fees being as low as 0.3%, according to Check Point.

While experts do not know who is behind Cerber, it is estimated that its authors will bring in close to $1 million for a yearly profit. So far, Cerber Ransomware has primarily targeted systems located in South Korea with countries like the U.S. ranking right behind. The spread method for Cerber, like other encryption-type ransomware, is limited to spam attachments and malicious links. Currently, Cerber authors are recruiting hackers, and we expect it to expand its reach and eventually reach countries like Russia, where surprisingly Cerber Ransomware hasn't affected.