Fable 5 Update: Still Willing to Cybercrime

- Alec Muffett is a respected security researcher who helped build Facebook's early "bug bounty" program and has long written about cybercrime economics. This post is the latest in a series called "Fable" where he explores the messy reality of online crime. - The article argues that cybercrime persists not because of a few bad actors, but because the economic incentives, enabling infrastructure, and legal gray areas make it a rational choice for many people worldwide — and that most "solutions" ignore these root causes. - The "Fable" moniker refers to his point that the clean, moral stories we tell ourselves about cybercriminals (villains vs. heroes) don't match the messy reality where malware, fraud, and money laundering blend into everyday internet business models. - This update revisits his core claim from earlier Fable posts: that governments and tech companies are unwilling to actually disrupt the infrastructure and financial systems that enable cybercrime, because doing so would harm their own interests or the broader digital economy.