Finding a hacker might not be too difficult these days. A new website called "Hackers List" is up and running, and is now trying to connect hackers with people who either need access to personal information, access to a database, or just want to mess with someone they don't like.
So far the site has already handled bids for approximately 500 hacking jobs. The site keeps both parties involved anonymous and collects a fee for each assignment. Customers wanting the services of a hacker bid on jobs and their payments are held in escrow until the assignment is completed.
The hacks range from simple to more complex, with fees ranging from $100 up to $5,000. The jobs themselves originate from around the globe. For example, one bidder in Australia was willing to pay up to $2,000 to get a list of clients from his competitor's database. The bidder wants to know who the customers are and how much they are being charged.
Other jobs on the site come from people who are simply looking for embarrassing photos or stories removed from the Internet, or needed a grade changed or password recovered.
The site demonstrates how much hacking has changed over the years going from a low-profile, in the shadows, occupation to something that is more common on the Internet. Hacking email and social media accounts happens on a fairly regular basis already, creating problems for law enforcement agencies around the globe. And with sites like these, they may be looking at far more problems in the future.
A recent New York Times review of the site showed that there is far more demand than there is supply. Although there were 844 registered job posters, only 40 hackers were doing the work, leaving many of the jobs unfilled.
The founders of the website, "Hacker's List," claim they are not doing anything illegal, and they have spelled out in their terms and conditions that users must agree not to use the service for illegal purposes. However, it is hard to imagine this site is not operating in at the very least a legal gray area.
At least for now, the site continues to fill a need for a market that is in high demand, and hackers everywhere looking for side work stand to rake in a steady second income with just a few regular visits to the site. It's hard not to imagine that this site will be heavily watched by law enforcement agencies across the globe, especially in light of the recent news of hackers infiltrating the Sony Corporation and North Korea's main databases. But behind the veil of the internet, perhaps it will be the hackers who prevail.
