The developer of the DarkComet RAT explained that he was shutting down the site because of the misuse of the tool and the possibility that he could be held legally responsible for his actions.
The DarkComet RAT was used by the Syrian regime to gather information on opposition groups, impersonate opposition leaders in online chats, capture webcam activity, disable the notification setting for certain anti-virus programs, record key strokes, and steal passwords.
The decision to shut down the site comes after high-profile arrests of the creators of the Mariposa botnet and Blackshades RAT project, noted Symantec Security Response in a blog.
“These arrests are sending a message to the authors of such tools that they are not above the law and could face prosecution for their actions. The recent arrest of the Blackshades RAT project author and the end of this project may yet have further reverberations leading to the closure of other similar projects. Time will tell, but any similar closures due to the risk of prosecution must be seen as a step in the right direction in combating the risk posed by such freely available tools”, Symantec oberved.