The odds are good that you never heard of CastleCops. Unless, of course, you were infected by a cybercriminal's piece of malware* and turned to the Web for help. (* virus, worm, trojan, "rogue antivirus", [See Is that anti-spyware program really spyware?] etc.)
CastleCops.com was one of those "good guys" sites, dedicated to combating the cybercrime that is threatening to render the Internet too unsafe to surf. (Many consider it that way already, btw.) It was, amongst other things, one of the places you could post your HiJack This! logs, and a volunteer team of antimalwareologists¹ would walk you through the steps to removing difficult infections.
There are "good guys" (aka "whitehats") out there, and there are bad guys. CastleCops was definitely on the side of justice and good. Education and collaborative information sharing were among CastleCops highest priorities. They had been achieved by training the volunteer staff in their anti-malware academies and through additional services including CastleCops forums, news, reviews, and continuing education.
Which made them a target.
I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised when I dropped in and saw this..
You have arrived at the CastleCops website, which is currently offline. It has been our pleasure to investigate online crime and volunteer with our virtual family to assist with your computer needs and make the Internet a safer place. Unfortunately, all things come to an end. Keep up the good fight folks, for the spirit of this community lies within each of us. We are empowered to improve the safety and security of the Internet in our own way. Let us feel blessed for the impact we made and the relationships created. (click here to read the rest..)
PST 23 Dec 2008
This can only be construed as one more victory for the blackhats (whether or not CastleCops fell victim to direct attack.. such as DoS, as I've good cause to suspect). Some days, I get to feeling.. we're not only losing the battles.. we've lost the war.
¹ A word I made up to describe a person who studies the art of malware infection removal.. like, me.
[note: though I am late, I would like to thank those folks who volunteered their time and talents at CastleCops. A big tip of my geek hat to you all.]
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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