McAfee Researchers Analyze Cybercriminal Markets, Reveal Tactics, Targets

McAfee released its McAfee Labs Threats Report: December 2018, examining activity in the cybercriminal underground and the evolution of cyber threats in Q3 2018. McAfee Labs saw an average of 480 new threats per minute and a sharp increase in malware targeting IoT devices.

The third quarter of 2018 saw the Dream, Wall Street, and Olympus markets clamoring for market share, until the mysterious disappearance of Olympus. In an effort to evade law enforcement and build trust directly with customers, some entrepreneurial cybercriminals have shifted away from using larger markets to sell their goods and have begun creating their own specialized shops. This shift has sparked a new line of business for website designers offering to build hidden marketplaces for aspiring shady business owners.

Book a demo today to see GlobalDots is action.

Optimize cloud costs, control spend, and automate for deeper insights and efficiency.

Book a demo today to see GlobalDots is action.

“Cybercriminals are very opportunistic in nature. The cyberthreats we face today once began as conversations on hidden forums and grew into products and services available on underground markets. Additionally, the strong brands we see emerging offer a lot to cybercriminals: higher infection rates, and both operational and financial security.”
– John Fokker, head of cybercriminal investigations, McAfee

An artistic representation of the phrase 'Cyber Security'

Read more: Help Net Security

Latest Articles

The Security Blind Spot: Business Logic Failures and How to Catch Them

Security leaders know the drill: vulnerability scanners run their course, reports stack up, and yet attackers still slip through. What’s going wrong? We sat down with Yosef Yekutiel, CISO & Data Privacy Officer at MaccabiDent, at GlobalDots’ recent “Red Team Reality Check” event to unpack this gap, and how modern offensive security can fill it. […]

Ganesh The Awesome
27th August, 2025
How NetRefer Cut Observability Costs by €96,000 Per Year in Just 3 Months with GlobalDots

Overview NetRefer, a leading iGaming affiliate marketing platform, utilized Azure cloud-native monitoring tools. Shortcomings needed to be resolved, and the business required next-generation observability.  Problems that needed to be solved: Through GlobalDots’ expertise in selecting and implementing the right observability solution, NetRefer achieved €96,000 in annual savings and gained real-time observability across their entire platform […]

Ganesh The Awesome
24th July, 2025
Vulnerability Assessments vs. Penetration Testing: Key Differences, Use Cases & Best Practices

They’re not interchangeable. A vulnerability assessment identifies known flaws at scale. A penetration test mimics an actual attacker probing for impact. Yet many teams treat them the same. They substitute one for the other, check a compliance box, and move on as if they’re covered. They’re not. And that gap shows up later in real-world […]

Ganesh The Awesome
7th July, 2025
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs): The Evolving First Line of Defense in Cloud Security

Modern applications are built for speed, not simplicity. Containers, microservices, and cloud-native deployments have blown up the security perimeter. Traditional tools can’t keep up with this complexity. That’s why Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) matter. But the WAF of 2025 isn’t just an appliance sitting in front of a static website. It’s a flexible, cloud-aware security […]

Ganesh The Awesome
7th July, 2025

Unlock Your Cloud Potential

Schedule a call with our experts. Discover new technology and get recommendations to improve your performance.

    GlobalDots' industry expertise proactively addressed structural inefficiencies that would have otherwise hindered our success. Their laser focus is why I would recommend them as a partner to other companies

    Marco Kaiser
    Marco Kaiser

    CTO

    Legal Services

    GlobalDots has helped us to scale up our innovative capabilities, and in significantly improving our service provided to our clients

    Antonio Ostuni
    Antonio Ostuni

    CIO

    IT Services

    It's common for 3rd parties to work with a limited number of vendors - GlobalDots and its multi-vendor approach is different. Thanks to GlobalDots vendors umbrella, the hybrid-cloud migration was exceedingly smooth

    Motti Shpirer
    Motti Shpirer

    VP of Infrastructure & Technology

    Advertising Services