The Uber of the underworld

Amateur crooks are using plug-and-play hacking kits.

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Everything's possible at Harrods, proclaims the website of Britain's glitziest department store. Alas, on May 1, this universe of possibilities included an attempted cyber attack that forced the company to restrict internet access at its sites, it said. The attempted intrusion came just days after hackers took down computer systems at Marks & Spencer (M&S), a supermarket and clothing retailer which says the disruptions will cost it some £300 million (S$521 million).

These breaches, which also hit the Co-op supermarket chain, were more than just costly cyber attacks. They are worrying examples of how crime is evolving beyond simple street thuggery, or even the work of small groups of clever hackers, into a global service economy where anyone with cryptocurrency can buy the tools to paralyse a multinational corporation.

One of the chief suspects in the attacks on Britain's high street is the hacker collective Scattered Spider, according to Britain's National Crime Agency, which investigates serious and organised crime. Scattered Spider is not a traditional, hierarchical mafia. Instead, it is a fluid network of young hackers who may never meet in person, yet can coordinate devastating attacks across continents. They are thought to have used DragonForce, a ransomware-as-a-service platform that gives criminals the software to carry out attacks in which they encrypt the victim's data or otherwise block their access to computer systems until a ransom is paid.

Just as Uber upended the taxi industry and Airbnb reshaped the hotel business, the criminal underworld is undergoing its own digital revolution. Criminals who might once have committed crimes themselves are now becoming service providers in a vast underground marketplace. This new service model "is evolving at a rate that we've never previously seen", says Mr John Wojcik of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.