Exposing the "Data Leaks" Paradise - An Analysis

In a world dominated by a countless number of malicious and fraudulent cyber threat actor adversaries including the rise of the "penetration testing" crowd whose ultimately goal is to actually lower down the entry barriers into the World of Information Security potentially resulting in thousands of ethical and unethical penetration testing aware users across the globe who have the capacity and the potential to target thousands of legitimate Web sites in an attempt to take advantage of the "low-hanging fruit" it should be clearly noted that throughout the past couple of years a new generation of wannabe hackers and information security enthusiasts began to take place namely the rise of the data breach and data leaks community within the Information Security Industry whose ultimately goal is to actually obtain access to compromised and potentially leaked database of confidential records including high-profile data leaks in the context of government-based leaked data that will be later on eventually traded and attempted to be taken advantage of in the context of launching targeted phishing and malware-spreading campaigns potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of users in the process.

Sample uses of these stolen and compromised databases includes:

- setting the foundation for a successful spear-phishing campaigns

- setting the foundations for successful targeted malware and exploits serving campaigns

- setting the foundations for successful widespread spam and botnet propagation campaigns

- attempting to monetize the stolen database by selling access it to

- attempting to use double layer monetization for the stolen database by attempting to sell access to it including to the actual owners of the database who might be interested in obtaining a copy of it

- biased exclusivity and double layer monetization combination where the attacker might only sell the database to its actual owner and actually get rid of it once they receive the payment

The very notion that cybercriminals including white hat security experts and cybercrime fighters will eventually attempt to obtain access to for instance a compromised cybercrime forum for the purpose of exposing the personal details of its users that also include to possibly track down and geolocate including to actually profile and prosecute some of its members should be definitely considered as an old-fashioned trend in the actual fight against cybercrime online with more users and researchers joining the fight including the actual cybercriminals who might take additional measures to actually protect and prevent possible data leaks including various other OPSEC (Operational Security) type of measures in terms of positioning their cybercrime-friendly forum community as a invite-only or actually launching it in a a vetted and invite-only fashion.

What's should be clearly noted is that with the mainstream media continuing to raise awareness on the existence of high-profile hacking groups and hackers including the rise of the Anonymous crowd it should be clearly noted that wannabe and potential hackers would continue trying to steal the necessary media attention and actual "know-how" from high-profile hacking groups and individual hackers involved in high-profile data leaks and data breaches.

I believe that on the majority of occasions it's just ransomware that's making the headlines including its way into corporate networks thanks to the so called initial access brokers who on the majority of occasions are known to have been also outsourcing their hacking and network compromise needs to third-parties who would basically do an Attack Surface Reconnaissance on the Web and will attempt to find a weak spot into the corporate network of the targeted victim but would also attempt to data mine and harvest publicly accessible and obtainable email address accounts for the purpose of doing active social engineering reconnaissance that also includes the attempt to obtain accounting data belonging to these company individuals including to launch spear phishing attack campaigns against their infrastructure in an attempt to obtain access to their email address accounts home PCs and networks including related services ultimately attempting to compromise the security of the targeted network and the company in question.

Stay tuned!