Security Threat Profile in 2600 Magazine

2600 Magazine isn't the magazine I recommend to learn security tools and techniques, but the Summer 2004 issue has one article which justifies spending $5.50 to buy the whole issue. "A Guide to Internet Piracy" is a 4-page introduction to the "warez scene." The author, b-bstf, describes the piracy "food chain," from top to bottom:

- Warez/release groups: people who release warez to the warez community; often linked to the site traders
- Site traders: people who trade the releases from the above groups on fast servers
- FXP board users: script kiddies who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez
- IRC kiddies: users of IRC who download using XDCC bots or Fserves
- KaZaA kiddies: Users of KaZaA and other peer to peer programs

If you'd like to know how this community works and why they're interested in your servers or home workstations, buy the Summer 2004 2600 magazine.