They're a business, man. Business Insider takes a long, hard look at hackers: the way the cyber criminals share information with each other, the way they manage other hackers, and most importantly, how they make tons and tons of money. For a relatively small, upfront costs, hackers can make bank—as in, upwards of $80,000 per month bank.
One way involves fancy malware, but a simple premise that's old as time: holding things ransom. Hackers can "inject" certain websites—say, a porn website—with ransomware; if your computer gets infected with it, all your files will become encrypted, meaning you need to pay a fine and contact the hacker to unlock them again. Cyber mafiosos have been known to basically guilt their victims into paying them under false pretenses—by telling people who don't know any better that they've broken a law by watching porn or neglecting their computer.
Even with a conservative success rate—let's say, 10% of computers getting infected with ransomware and 0.5% of those victims paying—hackers can make $90,000 a month. When buying the actual malware only costs a few thousand, that's a pretty hefty profit. Time to rethink your college degree.
[via Business Insider]
