DDoS botnets for rent

Gunter Ollmann at Damballa’s blog says that if you are interested in renting a botnet, you just need to know how to search the Web.

As unimmaginable (or unethical) as it may seem to the regular Internet users (who use the Web for information, entertainment and shopping), there ARE botnets out there ready to be rented out for sinister deeds. Apparently, the going rate is around $200 for a 10k DDoS botnet per day. Here is an example currently existing at Ghost Market:

The thought that you could have a business that depends heavily on your Internet presence, and that someone that you had a beef with could just order a hit on it – it really makes you think, doesn’t it?

In this example we can see that this botnet can launch DDoS attacks of a magnitude that could take out most popular sites on the Internet – and the seller offers even a 3 minute demonstration so you can see what the botnet is capable of.

If you’re curious about finding more examples, Mr. Ollmann advises accessing the hacking portals from virtual or sandboxed hosts to prevent your browser being hacked.