Inside the Massive Crime Industry That’s Hacking Billion-Dollar Companies

The claimed Hot Topic hack is also the latest breach directly connected to a sprawling underground industry that has made hacking some of the most important companies in the world child's play.

The infostealer ecosystem starts with the malware itself, with names like Nexus , Aurora , META , and Raccoon .

The market has been able to grow and mature so much that law enforcement action against even one part of it is unlikely to make any lasting dent.

Infostealers are not especially hard to write, but the malware developers constantly butt heads with engineers inside tech giants, such as Google , who are trying to stop them from stealing users’ credentials.

In July , for example, Google Chrome rolled out an update that was designed to lock applications other than Chrome—including malware—from accessing cookie data.

The entire process from buying to selling stolen logs is automated through Telegram bots.

Infostealer networks sell logins, cookies and logins for sale on Telegram channels.

Many of these channels also distribute credentials for free, likely in an attempt to advertise their paid offerings.

Some infostealers are hidden inside cracked or pirated software, and are so effective that users are seeking the software out.