JOURNAL: The Google of Online Crime?

The most interesting aspect of the Russian Business Network (RBN) is that it has used the concept of platforms to create a large and rapidly growing criminal ecosystem (estimated at 60% of online crime). Here's what I mean: a difficult and shared problem for all online criminal activity is finding and maintaining a presence online (a server host from which to operate). The inability to maintain a (semi) stable presence online stunts the growth of the activity.

The RBN solves this problem by selling what it calls "bulletproof" hosting. This includes all the standard features of hosting but also front/shell companies, spoofing, counter-attacks (against investigators), corruption (pay offs to the right officials or potentially connections to nation-state intel agencies), geography shifting (even a move of hosts to China), and much more. All of this is bundled into a neat package sold at a graduated rate (you pay more if based on the level of negative feedback). The result is:

• Customers are empowered to focus on innovative new methodologies of attack rather than hosting shutdowns and worries about arrest. Specialization and segmentation occurs within the network, which allows a deeper exploration of avenues of improvement. The safety - productivity - challenge of this environment allows the RBN and its ecosystem partners to attract (with Wall Street level salaries) the top graduates of major universities.
• Internal markets and sharing networks develop that allow different efforts to sell spare capacity and share successful methodologies/tools. The RBN has even expanded its operations into a couple of killer apps that are widely desired.
• Stability (a reduction of uncertainty) in operations enables rapid market growth. Investment flows faster due to an increased ability to forecast future returns.

Comments

[Mark]

This is very interesting.

I wonder if you can put it into any sort of micro or macro economic theory. It seems that economics, with its dependence on 'efficient' markets ignores guerrilla participants. Theft, slavery, usury, blackmail, extortion and murder are economic trifles because they are somehow inefficient, and thus temporary aberrations which can be ignored.

[Duncan Kinder]

If something analogous to this could be used to effect healthcare, then things could get very interesting.

(Basically, a network centric approach to healthcare delivery and finance that would usurp and ultimately replace the current structure. )

I think it should be obvious by now that, while single payer is an excellent idea, neither it nor any sort of substitute is going to happen in our lifetimes due to "political realities." Hence the need to effect healthcare reform "political realities" be damned.

[Jeffrey Carr]

RBN has had a lot of publicity of late, and vanished from their old haunts in early November. They did resurface briefly in China, but disappeared again. I haven't heard anything since. There is an excellent study on them by David Bizeul (http://idolator.typepad.com/intelfusion/2007/11/the-russian-bus.html)

Rock Phish is another hugely profitable and highly organized Russian cybercrime outfit.

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