"In a blow to anti-phishing efforts, the
famed CastleCops organization dedicated to fighting spam and phishing
quietly shuttered its site last week.
The all-volunteer organization investigated phishing and malware scams,
and was credited with successfully derailing many of these attacks and
phishing sites. CastleCops itself was also a constant target of
distributed denial-of-service attacks and other scams.
CastleCops announced its demise just before Christmas last week with a short post on its Website:
"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," the
site says. "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."
The shutdown came nearly six months after the departure of
CastleCops' founder, Paul Laudanski, who left for a job at Microsoft
this summer. Paul, who still owned CastleCops after leaving its
day-to-day operations, and his wife Robin created CastleCops over six
years ago.
"I believe CastleCops' impact was a great and effective one
against online fraud, malware, and spam," Laudanski says. "CastleCops
far surpassed anything I imagined for it, and to that end I, and in
fact the community as a whole, are blessed.""
Read more: http://www.darkreading.com/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212700105
