One person’s paranoia is another one’s business.

A new website called Hacker’s List hooks up the suspicious, the vindictive and the flat-out immoral with those skilled at digitally breaking-and-entering. No need to learn code, if you’ve got a check book.

The New York Times profiled the company Friday.

Call it Craigslist for hackers. If you want to snoop on someone digitally, the site can help find a hacker to do it for you. “This is the world we live in,” says Yahoo Finance editor in chief Aaron Task. “Hacking has gone beyond just what governments do to other governments and what hackers are doing against corporations,” he says.

In the wake of attacks at Sony, Home Depot, and Target, it’s a scary new twist on hacking fears.  A practice long in the shadows, hacking is gaining new attention in the public eye. The annual Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas—a convention of hackers and internet security specialists—has gotten so big since its launch in 1997, it’s now held as a conference series with events in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, and Washington, D.C. as well. The Hollywood film, Blackhat, which opens today in theaters, is about a convicted blackhat hacker—a hacker whose primary goal is to infiltrate internet security– who is let loose from a 15-year prison sentence so he can help track down a hacker using his code to attack a Chinese nuclear power plant and rig U.S. commodities markets.

The jobs up for bidding on Hacker’s List for the most part lack large-scale Hollywood dramatics and intentions of far-reaching, devastating consequences. Task says it’s troubling because now anyone can launch an attack. “It’s not about the world coming to an end. It’s about the everyday things in our lives that are now at risk of being hacked,” he says.

One user is willing to pay anywhere from $100 to $1,000 for anyone who can remove a “false” and “defamatory” blog post. Another user is willing to spend $300 to $600 to change a final grade. Another wants her boyfriend’s Gmail and Facebook accounts hacked to find out if he is cheating on her.  And a man in Sweden is willing to pay $2,000 to someone who will hack into his landlord’s website.

Naturally, there’s a lot of demand. Supply? Not so much. According to the New York Times, only about 40 hackers have registered with the site, but more than 800 people have posted “jobs” for the hackers.

The legality of the site of course remains a big question. The site is registered in New Zealand. It says it can’t be held liable because it says the site doesn’t endorse or condone illegal activities in a ten-page terms and conditions section users have to sign off on.

The founders of the site are not willing to go public with their identities, according to the New York Times. But in an email conversation with a Times reporter, one of the hackers revealed the three founders were advised by legal counsel on how to structure the business without being held liable for any crimes users or hackers linked up through the site commit.

Task says, “Consider that nothing is safe on the internet or email or on text or on snapchat or on facebook or wherever you are posting your stuff.”

So will the site make it as a business?  Hacker’s List joins a booming anything-for-hire business environment on the web, which Task refers to as a “bizarre bazaar.”  At the other end of the spectrum, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week on the growing “cuddling” industry.   Entrepreneurs will cuddle with clients for a fee. There are cuddling businesses in at least 16 states with thousands of customers. The Journal reports that “snugglers squeeze, tickle and bearhug clients for a fixed rate” but keep their clothes on.

If only hiring a hacker was as warm and fuzzy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/don-t-be-a-snoop—hire-a-hacker-instead-161334042.html