Mainstream publicity not good for criminal internet activities

The Shadowserver Foundation, who’s mission is to “understand and help put a stop to high stakes cyber crime”, says that publicity is an effective way to do this. They cite the recent downfall of major hub, the Russian Business Network (RBN).

With alleged ties to the Russian criminal underground RBN has been a major hub for child pornography, scams, ID theft and piracy. It has been blamed for hacking into the Bank of India, as well as targeted attacks on small groups of anti-malware volunteers. It has distributed malware strains including, but not limited to Gozi, Goldun, Hupigon, Nurech, Nuklus, Pinch, Sinowal, Tibs, Xorpix, various dialers, downloaders, worms, adware, page hijackers, and proxies.

Mainstream publicity seems to have achieved what individual complaints could not. Articles in The Washington Post, and Wired, are what caused the RBG to lose its upstream providers.