Hackers earn $28,744 a year

Hackers earn less than IT professionals, according to a survey by Ponemon Institute.

 “While many attackers may be hoping for a big ‘payout’, reality can be quite different. The findings reveal that attackers on average receive $28,744 for an average of 705 hours spent on attacks annually,” the survey revealed.

This payout is 38.8 per cent less than average hourly rate of IT security practitioners employed in private and public sector, though the later gets less leisure time compared to the hackers. Attackers end up spending double the time trying to hack an excellent IT security infrastructure than weaker ones, which is 147 hours instead of 70 hours dedicated to a poorly fenced infrastructure. Meanwhile, the study also warns that cyber attackers have more and more access to sophisticated technology, automated hacking tools, making it easier for them to carry out an attack.

Majority of respondents in the survey, conducted among actual hackers after assuring them anonymity, say the time and resources incurred by attackers to execute a successful attacks have decreased over time. Technically proficient adversaries are spending an average of $1,367 for specialized toolkits to execute attacks. In the past two years, 63pc of respondents said their use of hacker tools has increased by an average of 18pc.

 The study says, “It costs less to hack. Not only are the hacker tools improving, the total cost of a successful attack has decreased, according to 53pc of respondents. The reduction in cost is due to less time to execute a successful attack and in the improvement in hacker tools.”

Photo: www.tibco.com