A deep dive into dark waters

We’ll be talking about how cybercriminals — mainly skids and extorters — talk with one another. They communicate through online chatrooms across multiple platforms, like Discord, Telegram, and self-hosted IRCs.

I introduce you to The Com. Let me be precise about the terminology here, because it matters. The Com is the network — the umbrella under which every cybercrime group and subculture in this space operates. It didn’t originate from script kiddies. It didn’t start as a playground for teenagers cosplaying as criminals. The Com has roots in older, more serious criminal infrastructure. The skids came later, as they always do — parasites latching onto a structure they didn’t build and barely understand. Wikipedia lists it as simply “The Com,” and for once that framing is apt: it is one thing, singular, and the groups that operate beneath it are not coms themselves. They are groups within The Com. That distinction matters. A Doxbin server hosted for Doxbin members? That’s a Doxbin community — a node inside the network. Swatting circles, extortion rings, grooming operations — all nodes. The Com is the network. Not the nodes.

And what are the insides of these groups like? Well, to be honest, the majority — and I mean the overwhelming majority — is script kiddies. Skids. They speak mostly plainly, comfortably, just as you would in a group chat with your closest friends. Except, there comes a point where they either flaunt their money or cybercrime-related victories, or they get in a voice chat to get a fellow com kid — com kid: someone who spends their entire life on a com — to record an argument they’re winning. Yes, something as useless and petty as that. They always talk too much. They have too much of an ego, and the fact that The Com exists in the first place means they’re too stupid to avoid getting caught. They build social clubs out of committing crimes, then share those social clubs online to meet more like-minded idiots. It’s all so fatiguing — and I hate to editorialize, but these people really are the bottom of the barrel. But here’s where the framing has to change — because stopping there would be dishonest and incomplete. The U.S. Department of Justice has characterized The Com as a nihilistic terror network. Not a cybercrime forum. Not a hacking community. A terror network. And that characterization is earned. Because while the skids are playing e-gangster in voice chat, other groups operating under the same umbrella run dedicated sextortion operations targeting minors, groom children, coordinate acts of real-world violence, and offer what can only be described as violence-as-a-service. Mutilation. Torture. Contracted harm. The deadliest parts of The Com are not cybercrime at all — they are terrorism, full stop. Horrifying, disgusting, and psychopathic in every sense of those words. I’ll speak more on the specific groups in future posts.

One more thing: that entire world, invisible to people who have lives in the real world — to people who are good-natured and make their money honorably — it’s entirely online. It’s all traceable, too. A nihilistic terror network, sitting right there in plain sight. Do these people really believe what they say stays within the confines of their own chats simply because they’re the only listed members? How much would you bet there are federal agents among them? Do these people realize that everything they say has a chance of getting them caught? Most likely not.

You may be wondering: how cautious are these people about initial entry? They must be pretty exclusive if they’re centered around crime, right? NO! THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL ON YOUTUBE. As if you’d think they couldn’t be any dumber... and if one’s talking to you, just know they’re likely talking behind your back with five other disgusting, tiring, comically villainous weaklings.

If any com kids are reading this, I’m sure you think I’m hitting a bit too close to home — but we’re just getting started. Skids and com kids alike, their most favorite thing in the world is doxxing and intimidating others. Treating others as worthless while acting untouchable. The most dangerous ones don’t even use tools of their own to scare one another or fulfill their childlike desire for power. They hijack tools used by law enforcement and pose as such to extract information about a target from almost nothing — i.e., an online username. In my next post, we’ll be talking about what Govmail and Kodex are. I’m not going to explain methods — I simply don’t care to go that deep, and I don’t need to. But you should know what’s being abused and why it matters. I personally hope, with everything in me, that every single one of them is served justice. Till next time.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Let's get started.

As you may already know, there are different classifications of cybercriminals. Script kiddies (known as skids online), hacktivists, and nation state threat actors are the ones I want to speak about today. Script kiddies are the ones that, for the most part, show up the most. They rely on leeching off the talents and tools of others to obtain their goal — money or recognition. The rest is just social engineering. But what I've learned is that they're too loud yet they act so nonchalant. They speak like e-gangsters yet they act cowardly. Why can't they pick a lane?

Well, skids don't act mysterious for purposes of OPSEC (operational security) or PERSEC (personal security). It's for the aura, believe it or not. But how did I come to this conclusion? They have biosites. They own online profile pages to establish themselves as someone of importance and to seek recognition from others. That's pure, unfiltered ego. And it's what gets them caught, because they aren't so bright.

Hacktivists sit in the middle when it comes to threat level. They aren't skids, yet they aren't as dangerous as nation state actors. Hacktivists use hacking techniques for political or social goals — think Anonymous. They aim to raise awareness of whatever truth they are seeking and provoke action around the ethical concerns of the world. Human rights, freedom of information, government transparency. They're generally for the people, and I respect that, but I don't at all condone, support or advocate for it in any way.

We have threat actors that leech off others, and we have threat actors that expose or destroy for a shared political or social goal — neither of which are particularly pro-government, pro-country, or pro-nationalism. And then we have nation state actors. No biosites, no disclosed goal, no external communication to blend in with the public. They execute a plan and do what needs to be done. The scariest part about nation state actors is the self-explanatory part: they are backed by their nation — their government — in its entirety. True soldiers.

As you might have realized already, there's a correlation to be made here. The less ego a threat actor shows, the more of a true threat they are. The threat actors who are genuinely dangerous don't put themselves online for the aura. Remember that.