Big Bad Hackers taken down

Darkode anyone? Not anymore. This underground bad hackers’ forum was recently demolished by the FBI, says a report on www.justice.gov. The dozen hackers associated with Darkode are facing criminal charges.

Though there are about 800 of such forums, Darkode was among the worst (or shall I say “best”?), presenting a serious threat to worldwide computers. Gone is Darkode’s ventures of buying, selling and trading malware, and exchanging hacking strategies—to actually carry out crimes, not just fun brainstorming.

The dismantling of Darkode comes as a result of infiltration also by the efforts of law enforcement representing 20 countries including Australia, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, Romania, Nigeria, Sweden and the UK. This is the biggest bust of a black hat forum to date.

Here is the cyber smut list from the www.justice.gov article:

• J. Gudmunds, 27. He created a botnet that stole data on 200 million occasions.
• M. Culbertson, 20. He’s the brains behind Dendroid, malware for sale on Darkode that was supposed to steal and control data from Google Android. Clever name, too: “Dend” refers to branching out (as in neuronal dendrites).
• E. Crocker, 29. He’s the mastermind behind a Facebook spreader that infected the computers of FB users, converting them to bots.
• N. Ahmed, P. Fleitz and D. Watts, 27, 31 and 28, respectively. They’re behind the spam that sent out millions of e-mails intended to bypass spam filters of cell phones.
• M. Saifuddin, 29. He tried to transfer credit card numbers to other Darkode members.
• D. Placek, 27. He allegedly created Darkode and sold malware on it.
• M. Skorjanc, F. Ruiz and M. Leniqi, 28, 36 and 34, respectively. They’ve been charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit computer fraud and extortion.
• Rory Stephen Guidry. He reportedly sold botnets on Darkode.

The article points out that all of these wrongdoings are accusations at this point, and that these defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.