Developers are in High Demand in the Cybercrime Underworld

Cybercrime is on the rise and no one is safe nowadays. The dark web is home to a growing number of job offers relating to cybersecurity. According to recent research from Kaspersky, developers are in high demand in the cybercrime underworld.

Developers are in High Demand in the Cybercrime Underworld

According to the report, 155 forums advertise jobs in the dark web job market between January 2020 and June 2022. The study uncovered an alarming spike in March 2020. Kaspersky says is likely owing to the lockdowns and restrictions imposed by the pandemic, leading many to seek alternative employment.

Almost 200,000 employment-related ads were posted to the forums during the period spanning more than two years. Among them, 41% were posted during 2020. The number of ads posted in the first months of 2021 saw a dropoff. Later on, ads began to rise again.

In a bid to attract hackers, these potentially illegal roles promised a number of terms to appeal to the modern-day digital nomad, including remote work (45%), full-time employment (34%), and a flexible schedule (33%). The report highlights the significance of remote work in this type of role because anonymity is a must for cybercriminals.

Additionally, these ads also promised a fixed salary. Despite accounting for a fairly low number of ads, the median monthly salary for a reverse engineer was $4,000. Attacks and developers were also promised a median monthly salary of $2,500 and $2,000 respectively.

Not all of the job listings were necessarily criminal or illicit, Kaspersky researchers noted. Most dark web employers offer semi-legal and illegal jobs. There are ads with legal job offers that comply with national laws.

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