Cyberwar's Gray Market
Behind computer screens from France to Fort Worth, Texas, elite hackers hunt for security vulnerabilities worth thousands of dollars on a secretive unregulated marketplace.
Using sophisticated techniques to detect weaknesses in widely used programs like Google Chrome, Java, and Flash, they spend hours crafting “zero-day exploits”—complex codes custom-made to target a software flaw that has not been publicly disclosed, so they can bypass anti-virus or firewall detection to help infiltrate a computer system.
Like most technologies, the exploits have a dual use. They can be used as part of research efforts to help strengthen computers against intrusion. But they can also be weaponized and deployed aggressively for everything from government spying and corporate espionage to flat-out fraud. Now, as cyberwar escalates across the globe, there are fears that the burgeoning trade in finding and selling exploits is spiralling out of control—spurring calls for new laws to rein in the murky trade.
