According to BleepingComputer, researchers from threat intelligence company Hudson Rock found that 120,000 compromised devices had leaked hacker forum account credentials, indicating that some hackers' own devices were also infected by malware.
Hudson Rock said that 100,000 of the infected computers belonged to hackers, and the number of leaked hacker forum credentials exceeded 140,000.
Chief Technology Officer Alon Gal told BleepingComputer that hackers around the world are opportunistically infecting computers by promoting fake software or guiding victims through YouTube tutorials to download infected software. These victims may include hackers with low technical skills and easy to be deceived. The malicious programs that leaked this information, RedLine, Raccoon, and Azorult, all happen to be popular choices for many hackers when performing attacks.
By reviewing the data collected, Hudson Rock determined that more than 57,000 infected users had accounts belonging to an emerging cybercriminal community called Nulled[.]to.
Reduce the proportion of leaked account credentials of different hacking forums
In addition, users of the well-known hacker crime forum BreachForums have the strongest passwords to log in to the website, with more than 40% of passwords longer than 10 characters and containing 4 different types of characters.
Users of BreachForums are using stronger passwords
However, hackers also use very weak passwords, such as a series of consecutive numbers. This indicates that some hackers have little interest in participating in forum activity, perhaps just to keep up with discussions, to check what data is available for sale, or simply to access the forum in case something more important happens.
The researchers also found that login credentials for cybercriminal forums were generally stronger than those for government websites, although the difference was not significant.