Friday, June 5, 2009

FTC Shuts Down Web Hosting Firm

US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has shut down web hosting provider Pricewert that operated at least under 3FN and APS Telecom names. FTC states that Pricewert was criminal ISP that sold services to other cyber criminals. Company hosted botnet servers and also helped in distributing spam, child pornography and rogue antivirus products.

It's not clear yet how the shutdown will affect. Similar shutdown happened in last November when net provider McColo was sent offline. That time spam amounts decreased a lot. Though 3FN was a major provider for Cutwail spam botnet it's possible that criminals have learnt their lessons and have programmed the botnet to use backup commands.

More on the subject:
Washington Post article
The Register article
Court documents

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