Dodgy domain registrar de-accredited by ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has terminated its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with EstDomains.com after the President of the company was convicted for credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery.
This comes as welcome news by the cyber security community as EstDomains.com has been used by cyber criminals for years to hide their identities and conduct various malicious activities such as using domains for bot command & control servers, drive-by downloads as well as spamming.
Here are some links of interest that provide more information on this story:
1. F-Secure Weblog - “Case EstDomains”
2. The Washington Post Company - “ICANN De-Accredits EstDomains for CEO’s Fraud Convictions”
3. Notice sent to EstDomains.com by ICANN (pdf)
Justice for largest hacking case ever
CNN is reporting that 11 people were charged yesterday for allegedly stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The hacking incidents relating to the accused took place at various major retail outlets in the USA over the past three years.
The defendants come from U.S.; Estonia; Belarus; China, with one individual whose country of origin still remains unknown.
From the report:
Under the indictments, three Miami, Florida, men — Albert “Segvec” Gonzalez, Christopher Scott and Damon Patrick Toey — are accused of hacking into the wireless computer networks of retailers including TJX Companies, whose stores include Marshall’s and T.J. Maxx, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Barnes and Noble and Sports Authority, among others.
The three men installed “sniffer” programs designed to capture credit card numbers, passwords and account information as they moved through the retailers’ card processing networks, said Michael Sullivan, the U.S. attorney in Boston.
