Genesis Market Impact on Canadian Economy Infographic

Genesis Market

Launched in 2018, GM is a paid, private illicit market, though registration codes can sometimes be obtained for free. The site repackages and resells infected computers that are part of botnets. 

Each bot comes with:

1. Cookie and credential list stolen from victims’ computers
2. Geolocation 
3. IP address
4. OS
5. Date of infection
6. Date of last connection to the command and control center

Canadian bot statistics

• Genesis Market currently has over 350,000 bots for sale, out of which Canada represents just under 1% of the market.
• 3,000 Canadian bots available on any given day
• Limited daily supply of fresh Canadian bots
• 400 Canadian bots added on Genesis Market in 2021
• Over 50% of Canadian bots were infected in 2018 and 2019
• Only 25% percent of bots were updated in 2021
• Most bots have not been updated in 2 years

Selection & Pricing

What variables do malicious actors use to determine sales and price?

• Time since last update
• Infection length
• Number of cookies / credentials
• Price
• Windows version, including if enterprise version or not

Pricing facts

• Bot prices are driven by the number of credentials (resources) it contains
• Fresh bots can be 4 times more expensive
• Bots updated in 2021 can sell for $350,  while older bots are as low as $1
• 30% of Canadian bots operate on a Windows enterprise version 
• 62% of Canadian bots operate on Windows 10
• Genesis Market facilitates 48 sales of Canadian bots per day
• Canadian bots provide credentials to close to 18,000 different websites.
• Google, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Amazon and Discord among most frequently stolen credentials
• Most bots come with the username and password for each of their credentials. Facebook passwords are often missing, as only 76% of bots provide this information.

Impact on Economy

• The estimated economic impact of Canadian bots sold on Genesis Market can be as high as $19M.

  Based on the following hypotheses:

  1. Bots lead to fraud in 60%-90% of cases
  2. Bots generate between $300 and $1,000 in revenue
  3. There are between 15 and 60 Canadian bots sold on a daily basis

  Bot impact depends on the share of bots still vulnerable to fraud, the money stolen through each bot, and the number of bots sold.

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