Business Is Booming Globally For Hackers

Luigi Auriemma looks for flaws in computer codes that his customers can exploit. Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Nations Buying As Hackers Sell Flaws In Computer Code -- New York Times

On the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, two Italian hackers have been searching for bugs — not the island’s many beetle varieties, but secret flaws in computer code that governments pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn about and exploit.

The hackers, Luigi Auriemma, 32, and Donato Ferrante, 28, sell technical details of such vulnerabilities to countries that want to break into the computer systems of foreign adversaries. The two will not reveal the clients of their company, ReVuln, but big buyers of services like theirs include the National Security Agency — which seeks the flaws for America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons — and American adversaries like the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.

All over the world, from South Africa to South Korea, business is booming in what hackers call “zero days,” the coding flaws in software like Microsoft Windows that can give a buyer unfettered access to a computer and any business, agency or individual dependent on one.

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My Comment: The more dependent we become on the digital economy .... the more important such "hacker businesses" become. I see nothing but growth for years for these firms and enterprises.