Black Hat hacker claims he can make $15k to $20k an hour

A lot of what the general public knows about hackers is perpetuated by Hollywood myth and urban legends. Whether you picture a pixie-cut Angelina Jolie surfing through cyberspace or a nameless, faceless foreigner spamming from a dim basement, most people probably don’t know much about the life of a traditional “Black Hat” hacker — someone who uses their hacking skills to make money or mischief, as opposed to helping companies and other organizations reinforce their security.

It turns out that the best Black Hat hackers run their operations just like any other business.

During an AmA on Reddit’s /r/netsec, a Black Hat Hacker under the (albeit fitting) username throw4way1945 explained the process of running his 3 million PC botnet, which he calls the Black Shadow Project. Offering an inside look at a system built on nefarious schemes like spamming and phishing, throw4way1945′s day sounds oddly enough like business as usual.