Criminal ecosystem is made up of mostly male native English language speakers aged from 16 to 25
Ransomware hacks, data theft, crypto scams and sextortion cover a broad range of cybercrimes carried out by an equally varied list of assailants.
But there is also an English-speaking criminal ecosystem carrying out these activities that defies conventional categorisation. Nonetheless, it does have a name: the Com.
Short for community, the Com is a loose affiliation of cybercriminals, largely native English language speakers typically aged from 16 to 25. Its activities run from crippling the IT systems of British retailers to phoning in bomb threats to schools and encouraging teenage girls to harm themselves.
The latest victims of the Com are premium users of PornHub, one of the world’s largest pornography sites, who have had their search history and viewing habits hacked by a group called ShinyHunters. The gang has emerged from the Com’s sprawling networks, whose constituents also include Scattered Spider, a collective that has been linked with hacks against the British retailers M&S, the Co-op and Harrods.
