December 27th, 2008
CastleCops: In Memorium
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
CastleCops, the volunteer-run website and organization famous for fighting phishing, highly recommended by many, has gone offline. The site had reached its five-year anniversary in 2007.
CastleCops had made many enemies among the malware community, who used DDOS attacks on the site as well as PayPal donations from compromised accounts to ruin the site’s PayPal reputation.
In June, founder Paul Laudanski announced in June that he had been hired by Microsoft to work on phishing and spam investigations, and said that he hoped to find someone else to run the site.
On their site, CastleCops said:
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.
CastleCops said they will try to return any donations made for their “server marathon,” but those made by check will be donated to the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC.org), as CastleCops does not have the donators’ addresses.
SecurityFocus said that some of CastleCops’ data has moved to the System Lookup site. This closure isn’t really a surprise, but CastleCops’ Phishing Incident Reporting & Termination Squad (PIRT) and Malware Incident Reporting & Termination Squad (MIRT) will be missed.
Steve Solomons says:
Would it be ungracious to suggest that if a big corporation sees a small organization as an embarrassment or becoming a thorn in their side they offer the key members jobs too good to resist.
The big corporation was getting a whole community cleaning their mess for free so why pay a big wage for one member? Even the main member?
December 29th, 2008 at 3:53 am
jrb says:
steve solomons.. i think you’ll find phishing is not the fault of one corporation, or operating system, or web browser maker. If anyone is to blame it is the banks and financial insitutions for not wanting to put in adequate security measures.
and in actual fact, if there is one technology company that is going above and beyond in the fight against phishing it is microsoft with innovations in browser design, and in other areas. I’m sure Paul Laudanski will do a great job at microsoft, it’s just a shame no one was willing to step up to the plate to fill his volunteered shoes.
December 30th, 2008 at 4:35 am
J. Vasarhelyi says:
Sorry to see CastleCops leave, no matter the circumstances. They are already sorely missed.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Sergey says:
It is a competition. The large eat little…
January 6th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Оксана says:
Keep up the good fight folks, for the spirit of this community lies within each of us
May 14th, 2009 at 9:29 pm