So is "The Com" an actual distinct concept that exists outside of security blogs, or is it more or less the same as "the scene" is used in other communities—just a generic term for all the unaffiliated people who happen to participate in a particular (in this case nefarious) hobby?
The way Krebs uses this first makes it sound like The Com is the name of a specific gang, but when I dig into the details the definition gets really fuzzy and starts to read like it literally just means "English speaking cybercriminals".
If it's the latter, I'm not sure why we need a name for it.
It's distinct in that these groups aren't isolated from each other, there's member overlap and subgroups splintering from each other due to trying to avoid authorities.
It's also distinct in the type of crimes. Sextortion involving young kids/creation and sharing of CSAM merging with extreme political beliefs and encouraging those beliefs, with a specific focus to target young kids particularly those vulnerable enough to not have parents immediately notice. The criminals are often also on the younger side, like 19 year olds leading sex cults[1].
"The Com" goes by other names due to these groups being in a lot of different regions under different monikers and subgroups. 764 network, cvlt network, harm nation, etc. All the same general type of crime and target groups.
What point of “there is a lot of overlap” is difficult to understand? These people are often in many of the same channels because of how easy it is to stay involved through the likes of discord. Krebs didn’t have to go through much effort and neither did the links I posted.
764 also splintered from a nazi group 09V. Don’t downplay them.
Side note, you might want to reassess some of your views that have you pushing the same sort of propaganda that these groups do.
> What point of “there is a lot of overlap” is difficult to understand?
The part where it would matter.
The "race realist" i.e. racist right likes to point out that there is a lot of overlap between certain racial groups and the criminal underclass. Statistically this is sort of true. Trying to use it to reason about any individual is logically known as the fallacy of division or ecological fallacy and colloquially known as "Nazi stuff". You may want to reassess your views that have you employing the same sort of guilt by association tactics that these groups do.
I am not a DOGE fan particularly and I am certainly very interested in whether this guy was a sextortionist or carder, but I'm not very interested in whether he was in a general scene with them.
"The Com" isn't a specific group of people despite what people say.
It's just what people who investigate call these crime communities because it easier to just have a general name for all of them then to name each and every one of them because their are literally hundreds of them and members move between them so a single member of "The Com" can be part of many communities within "Com"
The way Krebs uses this first makes it sound like The Com is the name of a specific gang, but when I dig into the details the definition gets really fuzzy and starts to read like it literally just means "English speaking cybercriminals".
If it's the latter, I'm not sure why we need a name for it.