Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
The shadow economy is thriving, and it has some new moves. Time spent exploring Russian underground websites, chat forums and exchanges is very compelling. Russian sites tend to be the most active when it comes to criminal activity and the recent Russia vs. South Ossetia combat is a good example of this. Both parties employed the very latest cyber techniques which were driven by the most sophisticated cyber gangsters. During the conflict each side accused the other of hacking into national governmental and banking websites, which included the South Ossetian ‘team’ replacing President Mikheil Saakashvili's pages with pictures of Adolf Hitler. What this Russian underworld also provides is a peephole into a world that looks much less like the cyber war zones that one might expect; rather, it shows us a world that looks as disturbing as our own.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Maksym Schipka (2009) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: