If it was malware it would originate from a single IP address. Of the 180 attempts so far, I don't believe there are any duplicate IP addresses. So, basically, a botnet.
My account has not been in use since close to the beginning of the creation of this forum. So it's an account that has long been inactive.
So if someone was looking to avoid people like me: i.e. people who would a) notice, and b) bother informing the forums one could.
1) grab the account list from the forum.
2) Throw out recently created accounts
3) Throw out accounts with high post contents.
4) Go for the rest.
5) Do slow and steady attacks on the rest, knowing the system only locks you out for a short period of time.
Why would someone bother? Honestly, heck if I know. Maybe they're trying to build a list of account name / passwords pairs to use on other locations. Maybe they're looking for personal information. Maybe they're hoping to sell more spam here. Maybe they're bored. Maybe they find the thought of doing a run on the Shadowrun forums to be a nice irony. Maybe they have a grudge and are looking to start a forum war with a bunch of old accounts as proxies. Who knows. I'm not concerned, but I figured someone ought to get a heads up in case they wanted to extend the account locked times or something.