Particularly discounted information – Newspaper Kommersant No. 241 (7442) dated 12/27/2022

Due to massive data leaks, including those organized by activist hackers, prices for databases that do not contain, for example, financial and other sensitive information, have almost halved. At the same time, complex data sets, including those about companies, on the contrary, have risen in price. Attackers have become more interested in direct access to the internal systems of organizations than the standard set of information about citizens, cybersecurity experts explain.

Numerous database leaks in 2022 reduced their value on the dark web, participants in the cybersecurity market told Kommersant. So, according to Ashot Oganesyan, the founder of the DLBI data leak intelligence and darknet monitoring service, due to the attacks of Ukrainian hacktivists, “a lot of cheap or even free databases stolen from Internet companies and services, including the largest” appeared: “This segment is grew more than an order of magnitude. Such bases, according to him, do not contain sensitive commercial information, but, as a rule, only personal data of users. According to Positive Technologies, if in 2021 the cost of such a “simple” base was $200–250, then in 2022 it will be $100–150.

At the same time, the databases containing the data demanded by fraudsters, for example, accurate information about the client’s cooperation with the bank and his accounts, according to DLBI, increased in price by about 100%, and their number decreased. These are databases, including those with official correspondence, explains Semyon Botalov, junior analyst at the Public Leaks Research Group and IM Department of Threat Intelligence Group-IB. According to him, now their cost can reach millions of rubles.

InfoWatch Group says that the most expensive databases in 2022 were bank data, including if an employee of the company took part in their theft. The cost of information along the chain on the black market can grow several times, Andrey Arsentyev, head of analytics and special projects at InfoWatch Group, clarifies: “Often a seller, for example, a bank manager, receives no more than 30% of the price of the package sold, and intermediaries can earn more.”

According to Threat Intelligence Group-IB, in just three summer months, 140 bases hit the network, and the anti-record was set in August – 100 leaks. There was one major incident (the details are not disclosed in the company), as a result of which the databases of 75 Russian companies got into the network at once, they say in Group-IB: “Among the victims were Internet delivery services, transport, construction and medical companies, online cinemas , telecom operators and others. According to Group-IB, the total number of strings that were made publicly available was 304 million. According to Kaspersky Lab, in general, the amount of personal data that got into the network as a result of the largest leaks in 2022 exceeded 1.5 billion records (see Kommersant of December 16).

Recently, demand has been formed for access to CRM-systems of companies (customer relationship management system), in which attackers themselves can obtain information about employees and clients of organizations from the primary source, notes Nikolay Chursin, an analyst at the Positive Technologies information security threat analysis group: “This leads to the fact that a narrow circle of attackers will have access to up-to-date and reliable data about users. And this data can be sold at an extremely high price, and used in targeted attacks using social engineering on wealthy citizens, key employees of organizations and government agencies.”

Mikhail Smirnov, head of the expert-analytical center of InfoWatch Group of Companies, agrees with this: “The most in demand is payment and authentication information – access to the organization’s network and CRM systems.” According to his forecast, in 2023 mass attacks will continue, and the target ones will become more prepared and their effectiveness will increase along with the damage.

Tatyana Isakova