About this interactive
What you are doing: matching each thing for sale to the broker who deals in it.
The lesson’s three brokers: an access and identity broker trades logins and personal identity data — usernames and passwords, and names, dates of birth and social-security numbers. A vulnerability broker sells word of a flaw, and the buyer keeps paying only until the system is patched. An exploit and malware broker sells finished attack software — the code that takes advantage of a flaw, or ready-made malware.
How to use it: ask what the buyer gets. A way in or an identity is access and identity. A flaw that still needs a tool written is a vulnerability. A ready-to-run program is an exploit or malware.
What you'll learn
- Sort what a criminal broker is selling into the kind of broker who handles it: an access and identity broker, a vulnerability broker, or an exploit and malware broker
- Explain how a broker makes stolen access, flaws, and attack tools easier for other adversaries to buy
Aligned to
CompTIA Security+
2.1
Compare and contrast common threat actors and motivations.
2.2
Explain common threat vectors and attack surfaces.
Key terms
- Access Broker
- A cybercriminal intermediary who buys, sells, and trades unauthorized access to systems, including stolen credentials and login information.
- Broker
- An intermediary who sells or provides access to malware, exploits, or other attack tools and capabilities to threat actors.
- Dark Web
- A part of the internet not indexed by standard search engines, commonly used for anonymous and often illegal activities such as trading stolen credentials, exploits, and malware.
- Vulnerability
- A weakness in a system, application, or process that can be exploited by a threat actor.
- Exploit
- A piece of software or technique that takes advantage of a vulnerability to gain unauthorized access or cause harm.
Topics
Access Broker
Broker
Dark Web
Interactive
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