“Looking for pentesters”: How Forum Life Has Conformed to the Ransomware Ban

**Executive summary:** Following mid-2021 bans on commercial ransomware content on major Russian-language forums (Exploit and XSS), forum users adopted evasive language (e.g., “looking for pentesters”) to recruit affiliates and trade services, while a new ransomware-focused forum (RAMP) briefly attracted many groups before declining amid trust issues and Conti’s fragmentation; overall, the bans had little practical effect on ransomware activity and recruitment.