[evilfantasy]

http://www.castlecops.com/

One of the original malware help sites has finally called it quits for ever

The constant attacks on the site coupled with funding issues has finally become too much apparently. Remember though that all the databases were copied/moved to System Lookup some time ago, so the resources are still available.

Greetings Folks,

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.

[serverguy]

That is a truly bad news.

The bad guys will be having a field day.

[evilfantasy]

Who will they target next I wonder...

[Hybr!d]

Am not massively familiar with CastleCops, what did they do prior to this?

Malware Forums?

[evilfantasy]

Yes they were one of the original full blown malware removal sites. The did much more also like reporting phishing sites and such.

[serverguy]

Their database was one of the most commonly used for malware lookups... there were Firefox add-ons written specifically for their site.

Brought down from constant attacks I am led to believe.

[evilfantasy]

Just a few more comments. Looks like part or most of the reason is they just simply got too big to properly maintain.

Paul and Robin, the site owners, did not have the time or the resources to keep the site up. The site had become so slow it was becoming very hard to look anything up or post there.

a) Malware authors DoS attacks against it
b) Server costs skyrocket
c) Revenue/donations can't cover the costs

[serverguy]

I believe they had nearly $10,000 dollars from donations readying for the new servers they were meant to be moving to. The site had been dead slow for weeks (15 to 20 mins server load time).

Also, Paul was hired by M$ some time ago, and is likely another reason for him giving up with the site.

[sjb007]

From what I know Castlecops was closed down due to a couple of factors. It had nothing to do with the DDOS attacks which had been the problem of prior slowdowns - that problem had been overcome, other slowdowns came from a faulty card which needed replacing in one of the servers (which was completed). From what I know the main contributing factors were: Paul getting a job with Microsoft which also meant them relocating to Redmond, also Robin has her hands tied with the ever growing family which has just recently grown by one more! They had tried to sell the site but from what I was led to belive they hit problem along the way. Its a shame castlecops has dissapeared, it was a stopping place for many of the top malware experts, it was also where I was trained to fight malware and where got the bug for killing malware. Its a shame to see it go.

[evilfantasy]

If I remember right I'm pretty sure thats the very first internet forum I ever joined. Seems like so long ago...