Online organized crime has been going on for over a decade, and Krebs has been covering it for that long too. He's quite well known in the online criminal underworld. If a well-resourced and ruthless criminal wanted Krebs dead, it would have already happened.

Instead the high-end criminals seem to be mostly amused and flattered by the coverage from Krebs. They even give him email interviews sometimes. They know he can't really do anything to stop them. He's just a writer.

It's generally only the new or small-time folks, who get their egos bruised, that try to harass him. These folks are generally cowards and not rich or well-connected anyway.

Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Reporters have died in the past from reporting on dangerous things. Here's a few: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

As someone else has pointed out, you don't have to be some high up gangster to hire a hitman. Or even just show up and shoot someone.