EstDomains

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EstDomains was a website hosting provider and a Delaware corporation headquartered in downtown Tartu, Estonia. [1] [2] [3] EstDomains was known for hosting websites with malware, child pornography, and other illegal content. [1] [4] Brian Krebs of The Washington Post stated that EstDomains "appeared to be the registrar of choice for the infamous Russian Business Network." [1] EstDomains was one of the largest domain registrars in the world. [3] By 2007 EstDomains gained a reputation for hosting illegal content. [5]

Contents

The CEO, Vladimir Tšaštšin (also known as "SCR"), received a prison sentence for credit card fraud, document forgery, and money laundering. [1] [3] His conviction occurred on 6 February 2008. [6] On 28 October 2008, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it would revoke the accreditation of EstDomains because of the CEO's convictions; the revocation would occur on 12 November 2008. [7] [8] On 29 October ICANN said it would delay shutting down EstDomains, pending a review. EstDomains said that Tšaštšin had resigned in June of that year and that his conviction is on appeal, [9] while EstDomains had not notified ICANN of the change. [6] On 12 November 2008 ICANN announced that EstDomains would be shut down on 24 November 2008. [10] According to ICANN, when the accreditation was terminated, EstDomains had 281,000 domain names. On Tuesday 25 November 2008 web host ResellerClub announced that it is taking over EstDomains's business. [11]

Iain Thompson of Australian PC Authority ranked Tšaštšin as the tenth-worst technology business chief executive. [12]

Arrest

On November 9, 2011, the FBI announced [13] the arrest of Tšaštšin and his business partners Timur Gerassimenko, Dmitri Jegorov, Valeri Aleksejev, Konstantin Poltev and Anton Ivanov in Operation Ghost Click . [14] At the time, the seventh defendant, Andrey Taame, remained at large.[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Krebs, Brian. "Security Fix - EstDomains: A Sordid History and a Storied CEO". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  2. ↑ "Welcome". 2006-03-25. Archived from the original on March 25, 2006. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  3. 1 2 3 "Case EstDomains - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab". F-secure.com. 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  4. ↑ Krebs, Brian. "Security Fix - A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  5. ↑ "Russian spam murder spins web hoax | News". PC Pro. 2007-10-12. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2013-03-08.
  6. 1 2 birumut. "Cybercrime friendly EstDomains loses ICANN registrar accreditation". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  7. ↑ Krebs, Brian. "Security Fix - ICANN De-Accredits EstDomains for CEO's Fraud Convictions". Voices.washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  8. ↑ "Notice of Termination of Icann Registrar Accreditation Agreement" (PDF). Icann.org. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  9. ↑ "ICANN Delays Shutting Down Spammy Estonian Registrar | PCWorld Business Center". Pcworld.com. 2012-02-10. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  10. ↑ "Termination of Registrar EstDomains to Go Ahead". ICANN. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  11. ↑ "ResellerClub to Take Over EstDomains; The Web Host Industry Review". Thewhir.com. 2008-11-25. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  12. ↑ "Top 10 worst chief executives - News - PC & Tech Authority". Pcauthority.com.au. 2008-11-24. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
  13. ↑ "FBI — Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Seven Individuals for Engineering Sophisticated Internet Fraud Scheme That Infected Millions of Computers Worldwide and Manipulated Internet Advertising Business". Fbi.gov. 2011-11-09. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  14. ↑ "FBI — International Cyber Ring That Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled". Fbi.gov. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
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