Season’s Stealings – The Dark Side of Holiday Shopping
Elena Koldobsky, Threat Intelligence AnalystOffering holiday discounts to potential customers is a known marketing strategy – selling products, be it chocolate, clothes, or perfumes, for a decreased price, to increase sales during the holiday season. Unsurprisingly, the unwritten marketing laws have not skipped cybercrime communities. During this time of the year, threat actors get “cheerful” and post creative promotion ideas, offering malware, botnets, and encryptors for a decreased price as a holiday sale.
For instance, on December 11, 2021, the threat actor “Grimxploit” posted a Christmas offer on the cybercrime forum RaidForums – an English-speaking forum focusing mostly on data breaches – promising to sell his products for a 20% discount to all those who use the coupon code “CHRISTMASS20”. Among the products sold were his Grimxploit branded crypter, worm, keylogger, and others, as well as a “remoded” version of Anubis botnet.