Demise of Angler, the world's worst exploit kit, still shrouded in mystery

The Angler exploit kit has all-but vanished and whoever knows why isn't talking. Angler was the most powerful and sought-after exploit kit on the market boasting rapid integration of new vulnerabilities that made it able to employ zero day attacks on Flash, Java, and Silverlight. It also employed a battery of complex …

[Christoph]

Maybe they quit while they were ahead?

"generating some US$34 million annually."

Unless they had huge numbers of people that's plenty of money to retire on. They might have got sensible and decided there was no point in continuing the risks when they were all already rich. Some people can actually be satisfied without needing to have a bigger super-yacht than anyone else!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe they quit while they were ahead?

Most criminals get caught either because they're dumb or greedy. Anyone able to come up with and run Angler isn't dumb, so...

[MK_E]

Re: Maybe they quit while they were ahead?

News of another ring getting busted would be a great time to shut up shop and let people assume that they must have been one of the people who were caught.

[DaLo]

Surely Angler was the world's best exploit kit?

The worst would be one that get delivered by FedEx in a big parcel with the words "this is an exploit kit designed to steal all your information and banking details" and requires you to watch a two hour instruction video to load it on and then ends up transferring funds the wrong way from the hacker's account into your own.

[Robert Carnegie]

Godwin's Law

Surely the worst exploit kit must be that Hitler one that we heard about the other day. (And it also isn't very good, apparently.)

[Gordon Pryra]

The worlds worst exploit kit?

Surly thats the one that we know about, the BEST one is still out there working nicely....

[Anonymous Coward]

The authors studied Windows 10...

...realised that they were but amateur carrion eaters foraging in the foothills of evil, and gave up.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

I suspect..

..that the authors received an offer they couldn't refuse from the FSB[1] and are currently locked in a black-hat lab somewhere..

[1] Nice lungs you have there. It would be a shame if they were deprived of air to breathe via an extended swim in the river while wearing polonium overshoes..

[Andy The Hat]

Excellent video ...

About 2 minutes in:

"Rhimsky, we must mask the drivers face with a blur."

<clicketty click>

"Ah, good, Zhossky is unreconisable and will not now be shot in several nasty ways by the Russian Mafia!"

"Petrov! I think Zhossky has moved!"

"Arghh. I feel the hint of Siberian winds biting around the Urals! Rhimsky, help me! How do I move the blur right? What, CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-SOMETHING WEIRD IN CYRILLIC? Thank you Rhimsky, that has indeed moved the blur! ... I think we are safe. We could redo that bit but I don't think anyone will notice and Zhossky is totally unrecognisable apart from his face and most people will be admiring his excellent wardrobe by Jacamo anyway ..."

[Wayland]

Buy out

Probably got bought by a government spy shop. Cuts down on the criminal stuff but provides the buyer with excellent tools. Ah but hang on if the activity can be monitored then focus will be on the only people still using the tools.