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Hackers Hack Other Hackers, Offer Their Data for $500

Turns out there is no honor amongst cybercriminals.
The w0rm landing page.

There's no honor amongst thieves, as the old adage goes. Well, it turns out that applies to cybercriminals, too.

One hacking forum made famous for targeting international media organizations now has a shameless listing for the database of another criminal forum. "w0rm," a private site that vends computer exploits and hacked data, has an user claiming to be selling the database of "Monopoly," a separate forum that focuses on credit card fraud, botnets and spam.

Although it is unclear what the database actually contains, be that email addresses and/or passwords, it's being advertised for a fairly humble $500. There doesn't appear to be any sort of personal connection or grudge between w0rm and Monopoly. Instead, the listing seems to be purely for the sake of business.

Plenty of underground sites sell or host hacked databases, be those reams of customer and company details from the recent Ashley Madison breach, stolen credentials from Bitcoin enthusiast forums, or pages of data from Internet service providers. But it's still relatively rare to see one criminal forum selling access to data obtained from another.

The Russian hacker or hacker group w0rm hit headlines in late 2013, when they hacked into a BBC server. A few months later, w0rm breached the systems of popular technology site CNET, VICE, and the Washington Post. The databases for the last two were then offered up for sale for 1 bitcoin each.

W0rm's eponymous site also sells zero-day exploits, with some reportedly ranging between $500 and $30,000. A representative of the site has previously claimed that their motivations are altruistic, and that they want to highlight security vulnerabilities to make the internet a safer place. Despite that, the exploits only go to the highest bidder.