Resembling 'cartels,' Hackers become more industrialized

Hackers are more "industrialized" than ever before and hacking communities now resemble an organized "drug cartel", according to a report released Monday.

Imperva, a data security company, found that today’s cybercrime industry has transformed and automated itself to mimic the 19th century industrial revolution, which accelerated assembly from single to mass production.

"The roles and responsibilities within the hacking community have developed to form a supply chain that resembles a drug cartel," the report noted.

There are three major roles within the industrialized hacking model. Firstly, the researcher searches for vulnerabilities in applications, frameworks, and products and then gives this information to malicious organizations for the sake of profit.

Secondly, a farmer maintains and increases the presence of botnets in cyberspace through mass infection. Lastly, the dealer distributes the malicious content.

The report also found that hackers are using industrialized methods to automate an as-yet unreported scheme that has infected hundreds, possibly thousands of .edu servers worldwide with Viagra ads.