Cybercrime on Subscription: Criminals Are Now Buying Netflix for Crime.
The world of cybercrime isn’t what we imagine anymore. No hoodies, no basements, no messy scripts. It’s an industry that sells subscriptions. A turnkey package to steal identities and infiltrate anywhere.
They call it “Impersonation-as-a-Service.” Like Netflix, but instead of TV shows you get phishing tools, training, coaching, ready-made exploits. You don’t even need to code: just pay and impersonate.
Underground forums prove it: ads for English-speaking social engineers have exploded in just one year. Because language is the most powerful weapon. No need to break firewalls if you can trick an employee into giving you credentials over the phone.
The big gangs know it. ShinyHunters and Scattered Spider already hit Ticketmaster, AT&T, Dior, Chanel, Allianz, Google. Not with advanced malware, but with fake voices, fake accounts, manipulated trust. AI has amplified it all: cloned voices, credible texts, perfect scripts.
The lone hacker era is over. Now it’s organized gangs borrowing tactics from intelligence agencies: reconnaissance, employee profiling, mapping software and company values, then striking. Invisible.
And now criminals don’t even need to learn. Traditional crime groups just buy the service, add these new tools to their old experience, and that’s it. They invest. We don’t. There are no global programs, no constant media campaigns, no effort to educate people about new tricks. Awareness should be the first line of defense, but we let it rot.
Most attacks don’t happen because of system flaws. They happen because someone falls for them. And if we stay ignorant, we’ll keep handing the entire world to those who turned crime into a subscription service.
#ArtificialDecisions #MCC