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FTC Shuts Down Malicious ISP
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-06-05
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The Federal Trade Commission won a court order to shut off Internet and data center services to San Jose, Calif.-based Triple Fiber Network (3FN.net), alleging the ISP was rogue network hosting and facilitating botnets, phishing sites, and child porn.
 | | FTC Shuts Down Malicious ISP |  |
Instantly 15,000 websites went offline, all of them hosted by 3FN, which will be prosecuted under its other business name, Pricewert LLC. The company also does business as APS Telecom and APX Telecom.
The FTC alleges Pricewert advertised its services "in the darkest corners of the Internet, including a forum established to facilitate communication between criminals." The complaint also accuses Pricewert of shielding its clients' criminal activity by ignoring takedown requests or shifting clients to another IP address to avoid detection.
According to the complaint 3FN was a base for control and command of many botnets, including Cutwail, one of the world's largest spambots. Through transcripts of instant message logs, the FTC discovered senior-level employees discussing botnet configurations with bot herders. The government agency discovered 4,500 malicious software programs controlled by the command-and-control servers hosted by 3FN.
This was the first time the FTC the agency went after a court order to shut down an Internet service provider.
Though thousands of websites with malicious or illegal content were instantly taken offline, security researchers discovered the takedown had little immediate impact on spam levels. Unlike the famous McColo shutdown, which dropped spam by as much as 75 percent right away, researchers speculate cybercrooks learned their lesson and set up numerous backups while recovering.
The Washington Post's Brian Krebs provides a screen shot of a 3FN advertisement taken from verified.ru, a notorious online forum for cybercriminals.
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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