Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland)
OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft... Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem? Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem... For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places: https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cia-sextortion-scam/ Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even! https://twitter.com/SpamAuditor/status/1107365604636278784 https://twitter.com/dvk01uk/status/1107510553621266433 https://twitter.com/bortzmeyer/status/1107737034049900544 https://twitter.com/ariestess69/status/1107468838596038656 https://twitter.com/bernhard_mahr/status/1107513313020297216 https://twitter.com/jzmurdock/status/1107679858945974272 https://twitter.com/gamamb/status/1107384186548207617 https://twitter.com/davidgsIoT/status/1107725201331097606 https://twitter.com/cybers_guards/status/1107675396076560384 https://twitter.com/ThatHostingCo/status/1107588660831105024 https://twitter.com/fladna9/status/1107554090765242368 https://twitter.com/JUSTADACHI/status/1107549777607184384 https://twitter.com/okhin/status/1107627379650908160 https://twitter.com/Purple_Wyrm/status/1107454618705887232 https://twitter.com/LadyOFyre/status/1107349022220550144 https://twitter.com/laurelvail/status/1107345980062523392 https://twitter.com/Alex__Rubio/status/1107595560440217600 The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges: https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs: AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom. So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore. Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place: AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow: https://pastebin.com/raw/ziVNCmZ8 I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities. Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo. Regards, rfg P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem. In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
Two notes: 1) We have seen most of the telecom fraud happen from three general locations a. The phones themselves. For instance people putting phones out there with the default password. b. Compromised routers. Fraudsters will compromise a CPE and bounce their traffic through it. Back in the day when we banned Palestine most of the fraud went down. Once they caught on they realized the traffic needed to flow from anywhere but PS. c. OVH - We used to get a lot from there till we started banning large blocks of their ranges. It seems the fraudsters caught on and they are going the route of compromised CPE's. 2) I spoke a few years back with the lead network engineers at DO and without giving away too much they are very aware that people use their network for fraud and actively work against it. I am nor sure about their abuse team but I know their core engineers have methods in place and shut down malicious activity. The issue is it's easier said then done. On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 8:03 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> wrote:
OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft...
Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem?
Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem...
For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places:
https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cia-sextortion-scam/
Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even!
https://twitter.com/SpamAuditor/status/1107365604636278784 https://twitter.com/dvk01uk/status/1107510553621266433 https://twitter.com/bortzmeyer/status/1107737034049900544 https://twitter.com/ariestess69/status/1107468838596038656 https://twitter.com/bernhard_mahr/status/1107513313020297216 https://twitter.com/jzmurdock/status/1107679858945974272 https://twitter.com/gamamb/status/1107384186548207617 https://twitter.com/davidgsIoT/status/1107725201331097606 https://twitter.com/cybers_guards/status/1107675396076560384 https://twitter.com/ThatHostingCo/status/1107588660831105024 https://twitter.com/fladna9/status/1107554090765242368 https://twitter.com/JUSTADACHI/status/1107549777607184384 https://twitter.com/okhin/status/1107627379650908160 https://twitter.com/Purple_Wyrm/status/1107454618705887232 https://twitter.com/LadyOFyre/status/1107349022220550144 https://twitter.com/laurelvail/status/1107345980062523392 https://twitter.com/Alex__Rubio/status/1107595560440217600
The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges:
https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC
As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs:
AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC
It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom.
So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore.
Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place:
AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH
The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow:
https://pastebin.com/raw/ziVNCmZ8
I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities.
Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo.
Regards, rfg
P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem.
In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
Ronald, we are asking Microsoft CDOC to investigate. You can find a variety of ways to report issues at their website as well: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/cdoc Thanks, Christian ________________________________ From: NANOG <nanog-bounces@nanog.org> on behalf of Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 5:02:38 PM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland) OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft... Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem? Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem... For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places: https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmyonlinese... Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even! https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges: https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.c... As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs: AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom. So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore. Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place: AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow: https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.c... I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities. Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo. Regards, rfg P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem. In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
RFG; I have passed your email on to the relevant team within DO to have a look at. I’d like to thank you for your deriding commentary to bring attention to this problem. I am not sure it is the most effective way to try and engage the wider industry on a public list, but each to their own. Oh, and additionally, as an Australian citizen with many Aussie and Kiwi colleagues working at DO of various religious persuasions; your postscript relating this back to the recent terror attacks is abhorrent and disgusting. You should be completely ashamed. Kind regards, Nik. Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 18, 2019, at 9:39 PM, Christian Kuhtz via NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> wrote:
Ronald,
we are asking Microsoft CDOC to investigate.
You can find a variety of ways to report issues at their website as well: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/cdoc
Thanks, Christian
________________________________ From: NANOG <nanog-bounces@nanog.org> on behalf of Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 5:02:38 PM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland)
OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft...
Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem?
Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem...
For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places:
https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmyonlinese...
Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even!
https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co... https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.co...
The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges:
https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.c...
As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs:
AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC
It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom.
So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore.
Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place:
AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH
The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow:
https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.c...
I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities.
Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo.
Regards, rfg
P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem.
In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
In message <MW2PR2101MB0892D3ED3F5F3D58F2F30171B2400@MW2PR2101MB0892.namprd21.prod.outlook.com>, Christian Kuhtz <chkuhtz@microsoft.com> wrote:
we are asking Microsoft CDOC to investigate.
Thank you. I am not at all sure who the mysterious "we" is intended to represent in that sentence. Perpahs it is just intended as the royal "we" as in "We are not amused." But I don't really care. I am greatful for any assitance from whatever quarter.
You can find a variety of ways to report issues at their website as well: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/cdoc
I do not use web forms to report spam incidents, even those as widespread and blatantly criminal as in this instance. It's a matter of principal. Why should companies such as these hide behind impersonal web forms, even as their paying customers are allowed to incessantly badger and harass me, and millions of others, via the medium of email? Are they too good to get down in the muck of email with the rest of us mere peasants? It appears that they think so. And in any event, where is the evidence that filling in such a form would result in any actual action whatsoever? I don't see any. Quite the opposite. What I see, and what is exemplified by this specific case, is that EVEN IF people do actually jump through all of the ridiculous hoops, spammers like this are allowed to just go on and on an on. Where is the accountability, either personal or corporate? Who, specifically, should be blamed, or can be blamed, if the output of such a web form is improperly being diverted, on a routine basis, to /dev/null? If I'm going to invest (or waste?) my time in meticulously explaining to some large corporation, exactly how they are screwing up, and/or exactly who and where their bad customers are, then is it really asking too much to hope and expect that these same companies should, at the very least, make available some actual human being with whom I can interact, as necessary, in order to make sure that they understand what I have taken my time to research and explain to them? It's a serious question, and I am constantly befuddled by the apparent desire of large corporations... even and perhaps especially those in the "communications" business... to isolate themselves from any and all outside communications, even those which might be helpful and beneficial to the corporations themselves. In short, would it really kill your people in your Digital Crimes Unit to just simply publish their names and email addresses, you know, sort of like the rest of us mere mortals do? Furthermore, I am compelled to ask this additional question: Why should it even be incumbant upon an unpaid volunteer Internet firefighters, such as myself, to inform various multi-billion dollar corporations that they have a problem? Are they really incapable of keeping a close eye on their own networks and figuring this out for themselves? I confess that on some days it would seem so. I now have your email address, which I see is in the microsoft.com domain. And I thank you for that. I hope that you won't begrudge me too awfully much if, the next time such a situation arises, I make use of it. As I have bemoaned at length now, it is both rare and difficult to find an actual and/or accountable human at most of the large corporations that run so much of the modern Internet, and thus, I am greatful to have one more such contact in my back pocket, especially given that you have already demonstrated that you both care and will take at least some action in response to serious ongoing situations such as this one. I thank you, and only ask that you please stay healthy and do not seek employment elsewhere, at least until my own demise or until the sun goes nova, whichever comes first. Regards, rfg
Please use the links I provided to make sure it gets to the right people with the information they need as fast as possible. Thanks, Christian ________________________________ From: NANOG <nanog-bounces@nanog.org> on behalf of Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 9:15:52 PM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland) In message <MW2PR2101MB0892D3ED3F5F3D58F2F30171B2400@MW2PR2101MB0892.namprd21.prod.outlook.com>, Christian Kuhtz <chkuhtz@microsoft.com> wrote:
we are asking Microsoft CDOC to investigate.
Thank you. I am not at all sure who the mysterious "we" is intended to represent in that sentence. Perpahs it is just intended as the royal "we" as in "We are not amused." But I don't really care. I am greatful for any assitance from whatever quarter.
You can find a variety of ways to report issues at their website as well: https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.micros...
I do not use web forms to report spam incidents, even those as widespread and blatantly criminal as in this instance. It's a matter of principal. Why should companies such as these hide behind impersonal web forms, even as their paying customers are allowed to incessantly badger and harass me, and millions of others, via the medium of email? Are they too good to get down in the muck of email with the rest of us mere peasants? It appears that they think so. And in any event, where is the evidence that filling in such a form would result in any actual action whatsoever? I don't see any. Quite the opposite. What I see, and what is exemplified by this specific case, is that EVEN IF people do actually jump through all of the ridiculous hoops, spammers like this are allowed to just go on and on an on. Where is the accountability, either personal or corporate? Who, specifically, should be blamed, or can be blamed, if the output of such a web form is improperly being diverted, on a routine basis, to /dev/null? If I'm going to invest (or waste?) my time in meticulously explaining to some large corporation, exactly how they are screwing up, and/or exactly who and where their bad customers are, then is it really asking too much to hope and expect that these same companies should, at the very least, make available some actual human being with whom I can interact, as necessary, in order to make sure that they understand what I have taken my time to research and explain to them? It's a serious question, and I am constantly befuddled by the apparent desire of large corporations... even and perhaps especially those in the "communications" business... to isolate themselves from any and all outside communications, even those which might be helpful and beneficial to the corporations themselves. In short, would it really kill your people in your Digital Crimes Unit to just simply publish their names and email addresses, you know, sort of like the rest of us mere mortals do? Furthermore, I am compelled to ask this additional question: Why should it even be incumbant upon an unpaid volunteer Internet firefighters, such as myself, to inform various multi-billion dollar corporations that they have a problem? Are they really incapable of keeping a close eye on their own networks and figuring this out for themselves? I confess that on some days it would seem so. I now have your email address, which I see is in the microsoft.com domain. And I thank you for that. I hope that you won't begrudge me too awfully much if, the next time such a situation arises, I make use of it. As I have bemoaned at length now, it is both rare and difficult to find an actual and/or accountable human at most of the large corporations that run so much of the modern Internet, and thus, I am greatful to have one more such contact in my back pocket, especially given that you have already demonstrated that you both care and will take at least some action in response to serious ongoing situations such as this one. I thank you, and only ask that you please stay healthy and do not seek employment elsewhere, at least until my own demise or until the sun goes nova, whichever comes first. Regards, rfg
This entire thread could easily have been simply : "Hey all! I'm having some challenges reaching a live person in the abuse groups for X, Y, and Z. Can anyone help with a contact, or if anyone from those companies sees this, can you contact me off-list?" Calling everyone an idiot in the midst of Endless Pontification isn't really a recipe for success. On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 8:04 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> wrote:
OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft...
Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem?
Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem...
For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places:
https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cia-sextortion-scam/
Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even!
https://twitter.com/SpamAuditor/status/1107365604636278784 https://twitter.com/dvk01uk/status/1107510553621266433 https://twitter.com/bortzmeyer/status/1107737034049900544 https://twitter.com/ariestess69/status/1107468838596038656 https://twitter.com/bernhard_mahr/status/1107513313020297216 https://twitter.com/jzmurdock/status/1107679858945974272 https://twitter.com/gamamb/status/1107384186548207617 https://twitter.com/davidgsIoT/status/1107725201331097606 https://twitter.com/cybers_guards/status/1107675396076560384 https://twitter.com/ThatHostingCo/status/1107588660831105024 https://twitter.com/fladna9/status/1107554090765242368 https://twitter.com/JUSTADACHI/status/1107549777607184384 https://twitter.com/okhin/status/1107627379650908160 https://twitter.com/Purple_Wyrm/status/1107454618705887232 https://twitter.com/LadyOFyre/status/1107349022220550144 https://twitter.com/laurelvail/status/1107345980062523392 https://twitter.com/Alex__Rubio/status/1107595560440217600
The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges:
https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC
As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs:
AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC
It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom.
So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore.
Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place:
AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH
The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow:
https://pastebin.com/raw/ziVNCmZ8
I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities.
Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo.
Regards, rfg
P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem.
In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
I agree it could have definitely been simplified, but I also found the “endless pontification” a little amusing this morning. What I do not find amusing is the social outrage and identity politics that has made it’s way into the sacred NANOG mailing list. From: NANOG <nanog-bounces@nanog.org> On Behalf Of Tom Beecher Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019 9:01 AM To: Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> Subject: Re: Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland) This entire thread could easily have been simply : "Hey all! I'm having some challenges reaching a live person in the abuse groups for X, Y, and Z. Can anyone help with a contact, or if anyone from those companies sees this, can you contact me off-list?" Calling everyone an idiot in the midst of Endless Pontification isn't really a recipe for success. On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 8:04 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com<mailto:rfg@tristatelogic.com>> wrote: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft... Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem? Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem... For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places: https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cia-sextortion-scam/ Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even! https://twitter.com/SpamAuditor/status/1107365604636278784 https://twitter.com/dvk01uk/status/1107510553621266433 https://twitter.com/bortzmeyer/status/1107737034049900544 https://twitter.com/ariestess69/status/1107468838596038656 https://twitter.com/bernhard_mahr/status/1107513313020297216 https://twitter.com/jzmurdock/status/1107679858945974272 https://twitter.com/gamamb/status/1107384186548207617 https://twitter.com/davidgsIoT/status/1107725201331097606 https://twitter.com/cybers_guards/status/1107675396076560384 https://twitter.com/ThatHostingCo/status/1107588660831105024 https://twitter.com/fladna9/status/1107554090765242368 https://twitter.com/JUSTADACHI/status/1107549777607184384 https://twitter.com/okhin/status/1107627379650908160 https://twitter.com/Purple_Wyrm/status/1107454618705887232 https://twitter.com/LadyOFyre/status/1107349022220550144 https://twitter.com/laurelvail/status/1107345980062523392 https://twitter.com/Alex__Rubio/status/1107595560440217600 The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges: https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs: AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom. So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore. Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place: AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow: https://pastebin.com/raw/ziVNCmZ8 I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities. Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo. Regards, rfg P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem. In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
I originally held back on a similar response. But I had the exact same opinion. It works against your argument when you start off with insults and condescension. Personally, I would not refer anyone to someone making a post like this. Regards, Ray Orsini – CEO Orsini IT, LLC – Technology Consultants VOICE DATA BANDWIDTH SECURITY SUPPORT P: 305.967.6756 x1009<tel:305.967.6756%20x1009> E: ray@orsiniit.com<mailto:ray@orsiniit.com> TF: 844.OIT.VOIP http://www.orsiniit.com<http://www.orsiniit.com/> | Schedule a Call<https://orsiniit.as.me/?calendarID=1756688> From: NANOG <nanog-bounces@nanog.org> On Behalf Of Tom Beecher Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019 10:01 AM To: Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Cc: NANOG <nanog@nanog.org> Subject: Re: Contacts wanted: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft (Deutschland) This entire thread could easily have been simply : "Hey all! I'm having some challenges reaching a live person in the abuse groups for X, Y, and Z. Can anyone help with a contact, or if anyone from those companies sees this, can you contact me off-list?" Calling everyone an idiot in the midst of Endless Pontification isn't really a recipe for success. On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 8:04 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com<mailto:rfg@tristatelogic.com>> wrote: OVH, DigitalOcean, and Microsoft... Is there anybody awake and conscious at any of these places? I mean anybody who someone such as myself... just part of the Great Unwashed Masses... could actually speak to about a real and ongoing problem? Maybe most of you here will think that this is just a trivial problem, and one that's not even worth mentioning on NANOG. So be it. Make up you own minds. Here is the problem... For some time now, there has been an ongoing campaign of bitcoin extortion spamming going on which originates primarily or perhaps exclusively from IPv4 addresses owned by OVH and DigitalOcean. These scam spams have now been publicised in multiple places: https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/fake-cia-sextortion-scam/ Yea, that's just one place, I know, but there's also no shortage of people tweeting about this crap also, in multiple languages even! https://twitter.com/SpamAuditor/status/1107365604636278784 https://twitter.com/dvk01uk/status/1107510553621266433 https://twitter.com/bortzmeyer/status/1107737034049900544 https://twitter.com/ariestess69/status/1107468838596038656 https://twitter.com/bernhard_mahr/status/1107513313020297216 https://twitter.com/jzmurdock/status/1107679858945974272 https://twitter.com/gamamb/status/1107384186548207617 https://twitter.com/davidgsIoT/status/1107725201331097606 https://twitter.com/cybers_guards/status/1107675396076560384 https://twitter.com/ThatHostingCo/status/1107588660831105024 https://twitter.com/fladna9/status/1107554090765242368 https://twitter.com/JUSTADACHI/status/1107549777607184384 https://twitter.com/okhin/status/1107627379650908160 https://twitter.com/Purple_Wyrm/status/1107454618705887232 https://twitter.com/LadyOFyre/status/1107349022220550144 https://twitter.com/laurelvail/status/1107345980062523392 https://twitter.com/Alex__Rubio/status/1107595560440217600 The thing of it is that ALL of this crap... al of these scam spams... are quite obviously originating out of the networks of OVH and DigitalOcean. And it's not even all that hard to figure out where from, exactly and specifically. I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges: https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here. All of the spam source IPs are on just two ASNs: AS16276 - OVH SAS AS4061 - DigitalOcean, LLC It's equally clear that there have already been numerous reports about this ongoing and blatantly criminal activity that have been sent to the low-level high school dropout interns that these companies, like most others on the Internet these days, choose to employ as their first-level minions in their "not a profit center" abuse handling departments. So, guess what? Surprise, surprise! None of those clue-deprived flunkies have apparently yet managed to figure out that there's a pattern here. Duh!. As a result, the scamming and the spamming just go on and on and on, and the spammer-scammer just keeps on getting fresh new IP addresess on both of these networks... and fresh (and utterly free) new domain names from the equally careless company called Freenom. So, you know, I really would appreciate it if someone could either put me in touch with some actual sentient being at either OVH or DigitalOcean... assuming that any such actually exist... or at the very least, try to find one to whom clue may be passed about all this, because although these scam spams were kind of humorous and novel at first, the novelty has now worn off and they're really not all that funny anymore. Oh! And while we are on the subject, I'd also like to obtain a contact, preferbly one which is also and likewise in possession of something roughly approximating clue, at this place: AS200517 - Microsoft Deutschland MCIO GmbH The reason is that although MS Deutschland is most probably not the source of any of the spams, they, or at least their 51.18.39.107 address, do appear to be mixed up in all of this somehow: https://pastebin.com/raw/ziVNCmZ8 I dunno. Maybe Microsoft has managed to engineer a merger with the CIA (?) If not, then maybe they would be so kind as to rat out this specific criminal customer of their's to appropriate authorities. Don't get me wrong. I heartily applaud Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit for all of the admirable work they do, but you know the old saying... charity begins at home. So my hope is that they will seek to get this low-life off their network immediately, if not sooner, and then also seek to arrange suitable long term accomodations for him in, say, Florence, Colorado, or, if he/she/it has a higher than average level of tan, I hope that they will make all necessary inquiries to find out if there are still any open bunks available in Gitmo. Regards, rfg P.S. In recent days, the popular media has fanned the flames of controversy, as it is their habit to do, over the question of whether or not the various social media companies could have somehow automagically spotted and deleted, in real time, with some sort of yet-to-be-invented artificial intelligence wizardry, the shooter videos from New Zealand. Of course, none of the TV personalities who so cavalierly offer up their totally uninformed opinions on this question have ever themselves gotten within a country mile of the kinds of AI that could, perhaps in another decade or three, reliably distinguish between a video of a msss shooting and a video of a particularly raucous birthday party. It's a hard problem. In contrast to that hard problem, spotting the kind of trivial reverse DNS pattern I've noted above is child's play and a no brainer. Why then, one might reasonbly ask, have the combined abuse departments of both OVH and DigitalOcean been either utterly unable or else utterly unwilling to do so? Solving these kinds of trivial problems does not await the development of some advanced new artificial intelligence. It just requires the judicious application of a small bit of the non-artificial kind of intelligence. But the industry, it seems, can't, or won't, even manage that.
In message <CAL9Qcx7=-eTCJ7yGDT7oO2tkAJGOY3YMtYrtx5A-qH=-gN6vRg@mail.gmail.com>, Tom Beecher <beecher@beecher.cc> wrote:
Calling everyone an idiot in the midst of Endless Pontification isn't really a recipe for success.
I did not call "everyone" an idiot. I'm quite completely sure that there are innumerable people in all of the referenced companies who are consumate and hardworking professionals who excel at ther jobs. I do believe however, based on considerable experience and much hard evidence, that the abuse handling departnments at OVH and DigitalOcean, and indeed at essentially -every- sizable hosting company are less than entirely well staffed, less than entirely well trained, less than entirely well funded, and often inadequately effective, either due to their limited willingness or their limited authority, as circumscribed by management, when it comes to the execution of their assigned duties. The abuse handling function at *every* Internet company is the ugly stepchild, ignored whenever possible, and typically starved of resources by management whose overriding consideration is this quarter's P&L statement, and by extension, the nearest upcoming executive bonus period. Regards, rfg
On 3/19/19, 8:23 PM, "NANOG on behalf of Ronald F. Guilmette" <nanog-bounces@nanog.org on behalf of rfg@tristatelogic.com> wrote: In message <CAL9Qcx7=-eTCJ7yGDT7oO2tkAJGOY3YMtYrtx5A-qH=-gN6vRg@mail.gmail.com>, Tom Beecher <beecher@beecher.cc> wrote: >Calling everyone an idiot in the midst of Endless Pontification isn't >really a recipe for success. I did not call "everyone" an idiot. I'm quite completely sure that there are innumerable people in all of the referenced companies who are consumate and hardworking professionals who excel at ther jobs. I do believe however, based on considerable experience and much hard evidence, that the abuse handling departnments at OVH and DigitalOcean, and indeed at essentially -every- sizable hosting company are less than entirely well staffed, less than entirely well trained, less than entirely well funded, and often inadequately effective, either due to their limited willingness or their limited authority, as circumscribed by management, when it comes to the execution of their assigned duties. The abuse handling function at *every* Internet company is the ugly stepchild, ignored whenever possible, and typically starved of resources by management whose overriding consideration is this quarter's P&L statement, and by extension, the nearest upcoming executive bonus period. Regards, rfg Why not just drop any prefixes from the respective ASN's? We had to do that with OVH after the endless attacks coming from their networks, and lack of abuse response. OVH really loves to shift the abuse around to new prefixes; I got tired of spending time staying ahead of it.
On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 05:02:38PM -0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
I generated the following survey, on the fly, last night, based on a simple reverse DNS scan of the evidently relevant addrdess ranges:
https://pastebin.com/raw/WtM0Y5yC
As anyone who isn't as blind as a bat can easily see, there's a bit of a pattern here.
I finally found time to check this out. And I have to ask: how in the heck did anybody accept this operation as a customer? Because it's obvious on inspection -- of the information in that paste -- that they're abusers. Let me 'splain. First, domains in certain TLDs should be considered as -- at best -- dubious until proven otherwise, because those TLDs are well-known as abuse magnets. Every domain in this sample falls in that category. Anyone making mass use of domains in those TLDs is up to something abusive. Second, anyone making mass requests for PTR records for random subdomains is up to something abusive. Third, anyone mass-registering domains whose names are permutations of each other is up to something abusive. (I'm not talking about someone registering a couple of domains that are plausible typos of a primary one or engaging in defensive registrations across a few TLDs. Look at the list, this is obviously quite different from those cases.) Fourth, anyone mass-registering domains whose names are intended to be typo'd and/or misread is up to something abusive. Anybody doing all of the above is not only up to something abusive, but they're standing on a rooftop screaming it through a bullhorn. The word "mass" is key throughout not only because it is a highly reliable indicator of ensuing abuse but because its nature makes detecting this up front quite easy. Once I got to it, it took me less than a minute of scanning that list to determine that there is absolutely no way I would accept this operation as a customer. I recognize that not everyone everyone has my experience in this area, but surely every operation should have someone equipped with modest experience and and a skeptical eye who screens new customers, and, at *minimum*, puts them on hold while some due diligence takes place. It's much easier (and cheaper) to refuse service to operations like this than to deal with the fallout that will inevitably ensue. It's also much better for the rest of us. So: how did these people ever get in the door? ---rsk
participants (9)
-
Christian Kuhtz -
David Hubbard -
Dovid Bender -
Jack Barrett (Appia) -
Nikolas Geyer -
Ray Orsini -
Rich Kulawiec -
Ronald F. Guilmette -
Tom Beecher