The fxp boards layer in the piracy food chain is quite unknown and therefore rather safe. Though the hacker's activities are very illegal, and therefore dangerous. Security is important. The members are usually a lot smarter than irc-traders/p2p-users and have a greater knowledge about computers and internet.

The fxp boards work with a credit system. This can be an active credit system (whereby users need a certain amount of credits to get access to a server), or a passive credit system. A passive credit system means that once in a while the admins perform a deluser, to delete the inactive users. The board's members consist of scanners, hackers, and fillers. They each have their own tasks:

The Scanner
The scanner's job is to scan IP ranges where fast internet connection are known to lie (usually universities, company's, etc.) for vulnerable computers. We're talking brute forcing passwords from programs, or scanning on ports for certain programs which contain a bug. The scanner will often use slow, previously hacked computers for his scanning (known as scanstro's), using remote scan programs. Once the scanner has gotten his results, he'll post them at the board. This is where the hacker comes into play.

The Hacker
Hackers are the people who break into computers. There are many easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities. Hackers get in to a computer using an exploit to get in via a program's bug. An exploit is a script which uses the bug to get in the pc. The program/exploit he uses (of course) depends upon the vulnerability the scanner has scanned for. When in, the hacker runs installs a rootkit. This rootkit (usually a modified version of Serv-U) is the server where other people can download from. Most likely he will also install remote administrator software (usually Radmin), so he can re-enter the computer easily. Once the server is installed and working he'll post the admin login data to the FTP server on his FXP board. Depending on the speed of the compromised computer's (aka pubstro or stro) internet connection and the hard drive space, it will be used either by a filler or a scanner. The hackers from these fxp-boards are rather good, and are capable of hacking 100mbit's.

The Filler
Now if the pubstro is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it's the filler's job to fill the server with the latest warez. The filler gets his warez from other pubstro's, filled by other people. Fillers sometimes have site access, and fxp releases from there to their pubstro. These people who are in sites and in fxp boards are considered corrupt, and if other sceners find out, they will be scenebanned (banned from all sites). Though it is said that it happens quite often. Once he's done fxp'ing his warez, the filler goes back to the board and posts the leech (download) login data, so other people can download from it. Fillers (with site access) all try to post a release the first. It's kinda like a race, whoever wins it, gets the most credits. The speed of these pubstro's depends on the connection of the hacked computer.