Cyber Firm Execs Hacked Rival’s Servers

The competition in the cybersecurity landscape may be getting ugly.

ZDNet reported late last week that five employees from U.K.-based cybersecurity firm Quadsys admitted to hacking into the servers of a rival company. After a string of hearings, the staff members pleaded guilty to the accusation that their unauthorized access was aimed at stealing customer data and pricing information.

The executives under fire — Quadsys owner Paul Streeter, Managing Director Paul Cox, Director Alistair Barnard, Account Manager Steve Davies and security consultant Jon Townsend — were all arrested in March 2015 and charged last August.

“All pleaded guilty to obtaining unauthorized access to computer materials to facilitate the commission of an offense,” the court clerk told The Register.

Initially, the Quadsys Five were held under the suspicion of “conspiracy to commit computer misuse offenses; unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offenses; and conspiracy to enter into/be concerned in the acquisition/retention/use of controls of criminal property.”

The charges they face could result in a sentencing of up to 12 months in prison or hefty fines.

Last month, access to thousands of hacker servers was put up for sale on a massive global underground market.

Kaspersky Lab discovered that more than 70,000 hacked servers from government entities, corporations and universities were being sold for as little as $6 each.

The cybersecurity firm said the newly discovered xDedic marketplace currently has a listing of 70,624 hacked Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers for sale. It’s reported that many of the servers either host or provide access to consumer sites and services, while some have software installed for direct mail, financial accounting and POS processing, Kaspersky Lab confirmed.

The global forum enables cybercriminals to both purchase and sell access to the compromised servers and represents what Kaspersky Lab describes as a “new kind of cybercriminal marketplace.”

The platform is well-organized and easily provides quick and cheap access to legitimate organizational infrastructure.

According to Kaspersky Lab, the xDedic marketplace may have started back in 2014 but has grown significantly since. As of May 2016, it listed 70,624 servers from 173 countries for sale and posted under the names of 416 different sellers.