Hack Forums, one of the internet’s largest freely accessible security technology sites, has garnered some unwanted attention lately. When a denizen of the forum released the source code of the Mirai botnet malware, many security researchers found the site to be of particular interest, leading the site’s administrators to take down its DDoS-for-Hire section.

Witch Hunt?

The Mirai variant that affected many major sites recently pointed the spotlight toward Hack Forums in a most unwelcome manner. Security firm Flashpoint even went so far as to say that members of the Hack Forums were involved in that attack, Softpedia reported. That likely didn’t sit well with the U.S. senators calling for hearings on this Internet of Things (IoT) business.

The forum’s administrator, who goes by the not-so-modest moniker of Omniscient, gave a statement to The Washington Post about Mirai that he claimed was not edited to his liking. Omniscient believed that the media was blaming Hack Forums unjustly.

A Neutral Community

While there were certainly other outlets for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) software besides Hack Forums, the site did allow users to advertise this kind of malware and other services that could facilitate attacks.

Omniscient said Hack Forums is a community of “like-minded individuals who believe in learning new technical computer skills,” Softpedia reported. The site remains neutral, the administrator said, in “the same way that Twitter, Reddit or YouTube tries not to get involved in member content and censorship.”

Omniscient also seemed resigned to the fact that “members are going to do what they do no matter where or who they learned it from.”

More Than Just DDoS-for-Hire

It’s likely that Omniscient felt authorities might seize the forum’s servers. Deleting the DDoS-for-Hire section of the forum may have been a way to avoid that outcome. However, other kinds of questionable software still remain on the site, such as remote administration tools (RATs), keyloggers and hacking tutorials.

According to MalwareTech, the removal is a big deal, but more for the cultural implications: One long-term breeding ground for script kiddies has been stomped upon. But like cockroaches, another will likely pop up.