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In March of last year, Paul and Robin Laudanski and I started PIRT — the Phishing Incident and Response Termination squad. I can remember the scepticism and negativity when we started this task, by the “professionals.

What Paul and Robin have done since then is nothing short of amazing. And they don’t get a dime for it. And neither do any of the volunteers who work on takedowns.

From PIRT evolved MIRT — Malware Incident and Response Termination. Now, there is SIRT — Spam Incident Response and Termination.

This is not trivial work.

Yesterday, Paul posted this on Castlecops:

Since May 2006, our Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination team has directly prevented more than $80 million in credit card losses, and indirectly an additional $75 million by working with our partners. We’ve shut down not only phish sites, but drops all the while preserving evidence for law enforcement. And we need your help by donating your time as handlers to keep on investigating phish crimes so we can continue to prevent even greater numbers.

PIRT right now is receiving around 47,000 unique phish submissions per month. Our PIRT handlers are doing amazing work and trailblazing new roads in phish investigations and intelligence.

There are few people I have met in my life who are as genuine, kind-hearted and hard-working as Paul and Robin. Feel free to leave a comment congratulating them and all of their volunteers, here or on this blog.

Alex Eckelberry