Bulletproof hosting firm claims legitimacy

Crime-laden Russian service threatens to sue detractors.

A notorious Russian firm offering ‘bulletproof hosting’ – website hosting services with a guarantee that sites will not be taken down if found to be serving up illegal content, spam, malware, phishing sites etc. – has claimed in a media interview that its services are entirely genuine and legal, and hinted at plans to take legal action against security firms who have criticised its behaviour.

After a report in the

Washington Post

described the activities of the firm as ‘a world hub for websites devoted to child pornography, spamming and identity theft’, a representative of the St Petersburg-based

Russian Business Network

(RBN) gave an in-depth interview to

Wired

magazine, complaining of a steady stream of criticism from, among others,

iDefense

and parent

VeriSign

,

Symantec

,

SANS

and

SpamHaus

.

The spokesman said that the company is considering legal action to remove its

listing

on the

SpamHaus

‘ROKSO’ list of the most notorious spam operations, which describes the firm as ‘continuously hosting child pornography, malware, phishing and cybercrime’.

The firm’s services are expensive and mostly advertised by word-of-mouth among the cybercriminal underworld, according to security watchers. A

Kaspersky Labs

representative suggested that they are careful to avoid breaching any local laws, making it difficult for international agencies to persuade Russian law enforcement to intervene.

The

Washington Post

piece on RBN’s activities is

here

, and the interview given to

Wired

is

here

. An earlier report on RBN, in

The Economist

, is

here

.

Posted on 17 October 2007 by

Virus Bulletin