It's funny, usually the criminals and malcontents on the Internet are among the first to adopt new technology trends. But we had them beat with the whole aaS (as a Service) phenomena... until now.

IT News Australia reports on a talk given by Vasco Bank technical account manager Vlado Vajdic detailing a new malware offering where the providers will not only sell you the toolkit, but will now host and operate it for a low, low monthly fee. Renting time on botnets has not been a terribly unusual occurence, but this is the first time I have heard of anyone structuring long-term operations as an outsourced service.

I suppose in some senses most crime is a service-oriented business of a sort. The problem with cybercrime in that respect is that service businesses require a certain level of trust in order to operate. All this discussion we have been having about concerns over service uptimes and whether or not the provider is going to stay in business and what your options are if they fail are trebled when your provider is, not to put to fine a point on it, a criminal. Will criminal consumers rely on honor among thieves for their service level agreements? Not the bright ones, I would imagine.

And what will be the implications for antivirus software companies? This is something else that must be considered.