The Russian Business Network, the shadowy St. Petersburg, Russia-based ISP, is getting a very bad rap lately in the media.

And rightfully so. Experts believe the RBN is largely behind the Adobe rootkit attacks, which take advantage of a recently patched vulnerability, among other active exploits.

But Matt Richard, the newly appointed director of the Rapid Response Team at VeriSign iDefense, told me in an email that other hosting providers are also to blame.

“In fact, the heart of this attack centers around a U.S. corporation known to provide hosting support for adult sites and other shady organizations,” Richard wrote. “In addition, they accept a number of interesting payment options, including wire transfer and WebMoney. They have ICQ (instant messaging computing) contacts for support and are advertised on a number of forums frequented by cybercriminals. They offer support in English and Russian.”

If we should take anything away from Richard, it’s that the cybercriminal underground has become very organized. While the RBN may be the one group receiving the most attention these days, there’s likely scores of others doing performing similar unscrupulous acts.

Patch, patch, patch.

Here are the top 10 email- and web-based malware threats for September, according to Sophos. You’ll notice that Netsky and the Pushdo trojan were the dominant email-based malware last month, and IFRAMEs were very popular as a web-based threat.

September 2007 email-based malware threats, according to Sophos:

1. W32/Netsky 29.9%
2. Troj/Pushdo 27.4%
3. W32/Mytob 9.2%
4. W32/Zafi 8.3%
5. Mal/Iframe 6.0%
6. Mal/Behav 4.6%
7. W32/MyDoom 4.1%
8. Mal/Basine 2.5%
9. W32/Bagle 1.4%
10. W32/Traxg 1.2%
Other 5.4%

September 2007 web-based malware threats, according to Sophos:

1. Mal/Iframe 59.5%
2. Mal/ObfJS 17.0%
3. Troj/Decdec 3.7%
4. Troj/Fujif 3.6%
5. Mal/EncPk 1.6%
6. Troj/Iffy 1.3%
7. Troj/Pintadd 1.3%
8. Troj/Psyme 1.0%
9. Mal/Packer 0.9%
10. Troj/Ifradv 0.8%
Other 9.3%

It’s a red-letter day if you’re a fan of the HBO drama “The Sopranos,” as the acclaimed New Jersey mob drama kicks off its final nine episodes tonight.

If you’re a fan of the show, as I am, you know this season picks up with uncertainty hanging over Tony and the gang like an April cold front, and a climactic (and some guess too violent) seems to be in the cards.

But how realistic is the show? While its main character once tried to convince his daughter on a college visit that “the Mafia doesn’t exist,” readers of SC Magazine know in no uncertain terms that organized crime is out there – and the bosses are just as interested in obtaining personally identifiable information as shaking down the local restaurant owners.

So will Tony encourage Christopher to build more effective keyloggers, or will a non-made henchman get whacked for not sharing stolen TJX credit card details with his capo? Probably not, but stranger things have happened during the show’s nine-year run.