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Operation Firewall

There was something fishy going on with Shadowcrew. Max kept his presence on the Internet’s top crime site low-key; to him, Shadowcrew was just a hunting ground conveniently stocked with hackable carders. But in May 2004, a Shadowcrew administrator made an offer on the board that got Max’s attention. The admin, Cumbajohnny, was announcing a new VPN service just for Shadowcrew members.

A VPN—virtual private network—is typically used to provide telecommuters with access to their employer’s network from home. But a trustworthy underground VPN appealed to carders for another reason. It meant every byte of traffic from their computers could be encrypted—immune to sniffing by a nosy ISP or a law enforcement agency with a surveillance warrant. And any attempt to trace their activities would get no farther than Cumbajohnny’s own data center.

Cumbajohnny was a recent addition to Shadowcrew’s leadership—a former moderator who was growing in power and influence and changing the mood on the board. Some other admins were complaining about a new mean-spiritedness on the forum. Banner ads appeared at the top of the site: “Stop talking. Do Business. Advertise here. Contact Cumbajohnny.” Shadowcrew was taking on the feel of the Las Vegas strip, with