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
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