Researcher Scott Scheferman warns of a program called Black Lotus that can be found in the underground cybercrime market. For up to $5,000, it offers advanced persistent threat capabilities, and is undetectable by the current defense systems. Black Lotus, explains Scheferman, has all the necessary functionality to persist and operate indefinitely within an environment without being detected. This represents a leap forward in terms of ease of use, scalability, accessibility, evasion and destruction potential.

Scheferman, who periodically travels to China to understand the evolution of the Chinese threat ecology and underground ecosystem, has discovered that Black Lotus is a sophisticated malware program that incorporates new features capable of evading a variety of network- and host-based security measures. These include antivirus software, firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs) and more.

The low noise level created by this malware suggests that it was developed by a well-funded group with highly skilled programmers as well as solid knowledge of penetration testing/pen testing techniques. Its complexity is associated with the need to evade detection by traditional defenses in place within organizations.

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Source: The $5,000-malware program exposing global cybersecurity weaknesses (msn.com)