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FTC Shuts Down Criminal Web Hosting Company

by Terrence O'Brien on June 8, 2009 at 03:19 PM

FTC Shuts Down Criminal Web Hosting Company
The FTC and a California district court judge are doing their parts to make sure the Internet is a safer place by last week shutting down the ISP and Web-hosting company Pricewert LLC -- also known by the aliases 3FN, Triple Fiber Network, APS Telecom and APS Communications. Pricewert has made its mark in the Web site hosting world by allegedly soliciting business from and shielding criminals like spammers, and hosting malware and child pornography.

The complaint (warning: PDF) against the company charges that Pricewert ignored take-down requests, moved illegal sites to different IP addresses (Web addresses) to avoid detection, and even actively marketed their services "to domestic and overseas criminals by placing ads in the darkest corners of the Internet." According to the FTC, Pricewert servers are currently home to over 4,500 pieces of malicious software -- including spyware, viruses and worms (presumably sent out by the spammers who are hosted by Pricewert). Worse still, according to chat logs obtained by the FTC, Pricewert employees were directly involved in the configuration and design of botnets run by some of their criminal clientele.


Granting the FTC's request to block traffic to the provider, the court's decision not only took the 4,500 pieces of malware offline, but also shut down the 15,000-plus Web sites residing on the company's servers.

The criminals who utilized Pricewert's services will undoubtedly find new willing partners somewhere else, likely in some country with lax Internet crime laws. So, while this temporary victory is good news, it is certainly not time to let down our guards and start celebrating just yet. [From: FTC.gov and Washington Post]

Tags: 3fn, aps telecom, ApsTelecom, child pornography, ChildPornography, crime, ftc, government, isp, malware, pricewert, security, spam, top, web hosting, WebHosting

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