Information Week: How Does the Ransomware-as-a-Service Model Work?

The financial models for RaaS vary depending on the group. Affiliates may pay a monthly subscription fee, which can be relatively inexpensive, potentially $200 to $300, according to Carl Wearn, head of threat intelligence analysis and future ops at IT security company Mimecast.  

That monthly subscription fee may be accompanied by a profit-sharing agreement in which the affiliate pays a percentage of any ransom successfully exploited back to the RaaS group. “In the case that the affiliate successfully infects and actually receives cryptocurrency then the creator of the code then may receive a percentage … as high as 30 or even 33% of the proceeds of ransom paid,” says Purser.