The front end allowed subscribers to login to individual accounts, view indexed data and get results from queries based on certain fields such as IP addresses and URLs. Each customer-generated query had a price associated with it, Jackson said. The currency unit used on the site was WMZ, a WebMoney unit roughly equivalent to the U.S. dollar, Jackson said. A customer query returning three passwords for a small retailer might cost 100 WMZ, while a query for 10 passwords for an international bank might fetch 2,500 WMZ or more. Customers could also choose how they wanted their search results delivered -- as compressed files in e-mails or via FTP.

The actual Gozi Trojan code itself appears to have been purchased by 76Service from a Russian hacking group called the HangUp Team. Such code typically costs about $1,000 to $2,000, depending on its sophistication, Jackson said. In addition to the original Trojan, the server also hosted two ready-to-deploy variants in a separate staging area. The malicious code included a downloader and a stored password stealer and appeared to be have been made to order for 76Service.

Often, groups such as the HangUp Team also offer a detection monitoring service with which they keep an eye on anti-virus vendors to know exactly when signatures are available that can detect their malware. Customers who can afford the service are then told to start releasing variants to evade detection. And customers willing to pay for premium service can get hundreds of such ready-to-use variants bundled with their initial malware code purchase.

"When the first variant is detected by many AV vendors and data from new infections starts to slow, the person providing the executable code is to spot that and release a new variant," Jackson said.

The actual server hardware that the 76Service used was being managed by another entity called Russian Business Network (RBN), which provided SNMP-based management and back-up services. "This ensured a level of service [comparable to] a hosting provider," Jackson said.

"We are not talking about kids doing it for kicks over the weekend anymore," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak,, chief technology officer of Finjan a Californian-based security vendor. "This is real cash, real money that's involved here."

A report released last June by Finjan, had already noted a trend towards the commercialization of malicious code, Ben-Itzhak said. That report noted that cybercriminals hold "vulnerability auctions" at they sell information on freshly discovered software flaws to the highest bidder. Another trend spotted was the packaging of exploits into professional, off-the-shelf tool kits that can be used to create malicious Web sites. One such tool kit -- Web Attacker -- cost just $300 from a Russian Web site.

"Just like any other legitimate software company, the Russian Web site even solicited support and update service, and provided detailed reporting capabilities that could outline the number of people infected per exploit and per operating system," the Finjan report noted. "The level of investment in this particular software indicates that there is substantial demand for such products."