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Web Host of Groups That Traffic Spam Kicked Offline


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#1
sari

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The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide may have dropped drastically yesterday after a Web-hosting firm, identified by many in the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity, was taken offline.

McColo, a San Jose Web-hosting company that, according to computer security experts, serves as a U.S. staging ground for international firms that sell a variety of items, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals and child pornography, ceased operations after two Internet providers blocked Web access.

SecureWorks, an Atlanta security-services provider, estimates that McColo was responsible for 75 percent of all spam sent in the United States each day.

Global Crossing, a Bermuda company with U.S. operations in New Jersey and one of the two companies that provided Internet access to McColo, would not say why it cut off the company, but said Global Crossing's policy prohibits "malicious activity."

Benny Ng, director of marketing for Hurricane Electric, a Fremont, Calif., company that served as McColo's other Internet provider, said it decided to block the host firm after reading about allegations against McColo.

"We shut them down," Ng said. "We looked into it a bit, saw the size and scope of the problem . . . Within the hour, we had terminated all of our connections to them."

McColo officials did not respond to several e-mails, phone calls and instant messages.

Paul Ferguson, a threat researcher with computer security firm Trend Micro, said that despite the actions by McColo's Internet providers, U.S. authorities should have been looking into the company and its customers for a long time.

"There is damning evidence that this activity has been going on there for way too long, and plenty of people in the security community have gone out of their way to raise awareness about this network," Ferguson said. "It's a statement on the inefficiencies of trying to pursue legal prosecution of these guys that it takes so long for anything to be done about it."

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#2
BHowett

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Finally some good news :) But how long will it last? Unfortunately like it said in the article, they will be harder to fine the next time, and tracking illegal activity is a lot easier when you know where it’s coming from :)


Also on a side note, once you read the article the first time washingtonpost.com will add a cookie that will prompt you to register for free if you try to read it again. If you do not want to register you can just clean your cookies out, and read it again. :wave:
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#3
sari

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Also on a side note, once you read the article the first time washingtonpost.com will add a cookie that will prompt you to register for free if you try to read it again. If you do not want to register you can just clean your cookies out, and read it again


Since I'm registered there, I didn't know that.
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#4
jt1990

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:)
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