- Kaspersky analyzed thousands of dark web job ads and announced that developers are the most frequent ones.
- According to the report, the median levels of pay offered to IT professionals varied between $1,300 and $4,000.
- The major dark web employers are hacker teams and APT groups looking for those capable of developing and spreading malware code.
Kaspersky published a new report which analyzed more than 200,000 job ads from 155 dark websites between March 2020 and June 2022. The hacker groups are promoting illegal jobs that come with multiple benefits, such as paid time off or paid sick leaves. Hackers are also offering competitive salaries to be able to attract developers and hackers.
Attracting freelancers and digital nomads
Kaspersky stated that salaries offered on the dark web are seldom significantly higher than those professionals can earn legally. However, major changes in the market, layoffs, and pay cuts can prompt them to look for a job on cybercrime websites. Dark web jobs are also popular among freelancers and remote workers, allowing them to remain digital nomads or freelancers.
The hackers generally allow candidates to take as many days off as they want. Job ads on dark web forums cover a diverse area of expertise and job descriptions, from moderating Telegram channels to compromising corporate infrastructure. Kaspersky analyzed 867 ads that contained specified keywords, 638 of the ads being vacancy postings and 229 being resumes.
Developers are the most in-demand professionals, accounting for 61% of total ads. Attackers (pen testers) became second with 16% and designers came third with 10%. Kaspersky said,
« The data provided in this report shows that demand for IT professionals is fairly high on cybercrime websites, with new team members often being salaried employees. It is interesting, too, that cybercrime communities use the same methods for recruiting new members as legitimate organizations, and job ads they post often resemble those published on regular recruitment sites. »