Trellix roasts cybercriminals with Dark Web Roast campaign

Researchers didn’t want to glamorise cybercrims, so Trellix’s threat intel team decided to take an “almost psyops” approach and roast them instead, giving rise to the Dark Web Roast. During an interview with The Register at the RSA Conference, Trellix VP of threat intel John Fokker argued that glorifying threat actors harms customers and organisations, emphasising that cybercriminals are simply individuals who want to steal data and money, not mythical figures with superpowers.

The piece notes that some security figures, including former CISA boss Jen Easterly, have urged the industry to stop glamorising these groups and to give them unflattering names. Read to find out how the roasting is being applied, as reported by The Register. According to the article, the aim is to spark a debate and shift how organisations talk about and cover the criminal underground, rather than elevating those involved. 6 April 2026.