(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — At the request of the US Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov), a district court judge has pulled the plug on Internet service provider 3FN, which knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content, according to FTC allegations.
The US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division issued a temporary restraining order requiring upstream providers and data centers to disconnect Pricewert, which operates business under a variety of names including 3FN and APS Telecom, from the Internet. The FTC alleges that Pricewert has actively recruited and colluded with criminals seeking to distribute illegal, malicious, and harmful electronic content including child pornography, spyware, viruses, trojan horses, phishing, botnet command and control servers, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.
The FTC said Pricewert also advertised its services in “the darkest corners of the Internet,” including a forum specifically designed to facilitate communication between criminals. It also, allegedly, shielded its criminal clientele by either ignoring take-down requests issued by the online security community, or migrating its criminal elements to its other IP addresses to escape detection.
Contrary to the takedown of notorious spam host McColo, 3FN’s demise was the result of government action, rather than the efforts of do-gooders in the online community who pressured upstream providers to cut off arguably the world’s largest source of spam at the time.
According to the FTC, Pricewert also engaged in the deployment and operation of botnets, which created large networks of slave computers, which could be used for a variety of illicit purposes, including sending spam and launching denial of service attacks.
The FTC alleges that more than 4,500 malicious software programs are controlled by command-and-control servers hosted by 3FN, which could be used to log keystrokes, steal passwords and data, provide hidden backdoor remote control activity, and send spam.
The FTC reasoned that the distribution of illegal, malicious, and harmful content and deployment of botnets caused substantial consumer injury, was unfair and in violation of federal law. As well as prohibiting Pricewert’s illegal activities, the court ruling also freezes Pricewert’s assets. It will be holding a preliminary injunction hearing on June 15, 2009.
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