Renting An Exploit Kit Costs $50 A Day

A telling reminder that malware is very much a business these days: you can rent access to an exploit kit designed to exploit software vulnerabilities for $50 a day. If you’re aiming for longer-term damage, the same resource costs $500 a month.

Keyboard picture from Shutterstock

Check Point ANZ managing director Scott McKinnel quoted the figures, based on Check Point’s own research, at the Kickstart conference in Queensland earlier this week. While those basic kits might just be used to steal data, McKinnel predicted that extortion attempts where data or systems are seized would become more common. “We haven’t even seen it start yet,” he said.

The 30-day figure being just 10 times more than the one-day version is an interesting example of decoy pricing, showing that basic business principles still apply even when selling technology with criminal intent. That said, the ‘value’ of a 30-day deal is questionable; many exploits would be patched within that timeframe.

The bottom line? Security matters; people are out there trying to exploit any vulnerability that exists.