The economy of criminal hackers and how businesses can protect themselves

On Tuesday, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) released a new report titled "The Business of Hacking," which examined the underground economy surrounding cybercrime and criminal hackers, and explained how businesses can protect themselves.
Chandra Rangan, vice president of global marketing for HPE security products, said that many of the conversations they have with security professionals in IT organizations can quickly become very technical. As such, some business leaders often relegate security as something to be spoken to exclusively by security professionals.
But, by explaining how the cybercrime underworld economy works, Rangan hopes it will help business leaders "understand that criminal hacking is a business, and it operates like a business. By doing that, it gives business leaders a much better appreciation of what's a happening."

According to the report, cybercrime can take many forms. Criminals can be acting in the interest of organized crime, corporate espionage, hacktivism, cyber warfare or terrorism, or just people who want to make some money. The report itself focused on the criminal exploits that could be monetized.

In terms of the way criminals make money through cybercrime, the report identified 10 ways criminals use hacking for financial gain.