Cybercriminal Forums Host Contests with Cash Prizes
On Russian-speaking forums of cybercriminals, unique competitions have gained popularity where participants can win cash prizes for showcasing their technical skills and literary abilities. These contests primarily focus on the development of harmful programs, methods of bypassing antivirus programs, creating fake versions of sites for data theft, and other related activities.
According to the latest analysis from the SOPHOS cybersecurity company, these contests have been held for over a decade and the prizes have been increasing in size every year. In fact, the recent prize fund of one of these competitions reached a staggering $80,000.
The most notable contests have been observed on the Exploit and XSS forums. The forum administrators announce the competitions and invite participants to submit articles. While most articles are written in Russian, there are some that are translated into English to foster a friendly community.
At the XSS forum, the most recent competition took place from March to July 2022 with a prize fund of $40,000, which was more than double the amount from the previous year. Participants were encouraged to submit work on various topics, including malware development, methods of bypassing antivirus products, and social engineering techniques.
Meanwhile, the competition at the Exploit forum focused on attacks on cryptocurrencies, theft, and vulnerabilities, and had a prize pool of $80,000.
However, not all participants play by the rules. In the latest XSS contest, 10 out of 38 submitted works were disqualified.
These contests have also caught the attention of organized cybercrime groups. While some competitions are financed by forum owners, others receive sponsorship from well-known cybercrime groups. For instance, the XSS contest in 2022 was sponsored by the Alan Wake hacker, who is associated with the Conti Ransomware.
For more information, please visit the Sophos news article.