An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Internet Miscreants

The underground economy includes activities such as credit card fraud, identity theft, spamming, phishing, online credential theft, and the sale of compromised hosts. This economy has shifted from "hacking for fun" to "hacking for profit". This paper uses a dataset—including 7 months of data and over 13 million messages—to track a large illegal market, categorize the participants and explore the goods and services offered. A better understanding of this economy will help understand how to measure the threats, prepare defenses, and identify vulnerabilities within the underground economy.