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.