From my (admittedly shallow) understanding, all of that does kind of exist and has for at least a few years, now. It's also existed for longer for the DDoS-as-a

From my (admittedly shallow) understanding, all of that does kind of exist and has for at least a few years, now. It's also existed for longer for the DDoS-as-a-Service industry. Most of it's in Russian and takes place on private and semi-private Russian forums and chat rooms/groups. There's definitely a hierarchy to it. Any particular group may not necessarily develop or own the software or infrastructure they're using. You can probably liken it to drug markets, where there are some top-level central players and many tiers below that make up the whole supply and distribution chain. (And potentially, the absolute top-level / "The Commission" may be certain elements of certain nations' governments, in some cases, or at least closely associated with them, which further complicates matters.) You might find this 2020 interview with a ransomware operator interesting: https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/document_files/files/000/095/481/original/010421_LockBit_Interview.pdf https://talos-intelligence-site.s3.amazonaws.com/production/...