Hello Mark, What's YOUR motivation to consistantly attack my company? What's my motivation to continue working @ InterCage? To keep a roof over my family's heads, and to keep them well-fed: 1.) Myself 2.) My Wife 3.) My near 2 year old Son (November) 4.) My near 3 week old Daughter (Born Sept. 4th) It's great that you finally accepted the claim of InterCage being associated with the famed "RBN" as being "alledged". You've taken the first step into seeing how much BS information has been spread out about our company. Whether you support me in my anti-abuse endeavor or not, as long as you get FACTUAL information, I'm happy. However someday, I trust you will find and accept the truth about InterCage. From what I see now from the claims your making, that day may not come soon. Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell InterCage, Inc. ----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:14:01 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer Russell: Oh I got the memo, you'll be getting served one soon too. I just wonder why you don't consider playing both sides of the fence -- with your knowledge of who's who in the cyber crime field, you could probably get paid more as an informant (either to LEO or one of the "Intel" companies than whatever you're doing for Emil and (allegedly) the RBN. You can't possible sleep well knowing what your up to now so I figure it's the money that motivates you. Or, maybe you don't really know anyone, you just respond to their demands and they end up with all the money, pr0n chicks, etc. Doesn't that bother you -- don't you want more? Plus, no one would know you were pulling two pay checks -- you manage systems on one side and pass info to the other. It's actually fairly simple -- maybe you already know this ;). If not, please explain this: http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636 Without exception, all of the major security organizations on the Internet agree that the 'Home' of cybercrime in the western world is a firm known as Atrivo/Intercage, based in California. We ourselves have not come to this conclusion lightly but from many years of dealing with criminal operations hosted by Atrivo/Intercage, gangs of cybercriminals - mostly Russian and East European but with several US online crime gangs as well - whose activities always lead back to servers run by Atrivo/Intercage. We have lost count of the times we have tracked a major virus botnet's "command and control" to Atrivo/Intercage servers, readers can view here some of the current and historic SBL records for Atrivo for a taste of what has been happening in this network. At almost every Internet security conference, or law enforcement seminar on cyber-crime, a presentation will detail some attack, exploit, phish or financial crime that has some nexus at Atrivo/Intercage. The person who runs Atrivo/Intercage, Emil Kacperski is an expert at playing the "surprised janitor", unaware of every new criminal enterprise found on his servers and keen to show he gets rid of some criminals once their activities on his network are exposed. His Internet hosting career first came to the attention of most anti-abuse organizations when he pinched (or 'purchased stolen goods' as he put it) and routed an unused block of 65,536 IP addresses belonging to the County of Los Angeles. Spamhaus has dealt with over 350 incidents of cyber-crime hosting on Atrivo/Intercage and its related networks in the last 3 years alone, all of which involved criminal operations such as malware, virus spreaders and botnet command and control servers. Malware found by Spamhaus on Atrivo/Intercage/Cernel/Hostfresh just in the last few months included the Storm Worm installer and controller and a MySpace spambot amongst others. Spamhaus currently sees a large amount of activity related to malicious software and exploits being hosted on Atrivo/Intercage which include DNS hijack malware, IFRAME browser attacks, dialers, pirated software websites and blatantly criminal services. We assume that every law enforcement agency with a cyber-crimes division has a dossier bursting at the seams on Atrivo/Intercage and its tentacles such as Esthost, Estdomains, Cernel, Hostfresh. The only question on everyone's mind is which agency will beat the others to shutting the whole place down and indicting the people behind it. Because if shut down, one thing is certain: the amount of malware-driven crime on the Internet would drop overnight as cyber-criminals rush to find a new crime-friendly host - difficult to find in the US, as Atrivo/Intercage is one of the very few remaining dedicated crime hosting firms whose customer base is composed almost, or perhaps entirely, of criminal gangs. More importantly, millions of Internet users currently being targeted by the malware gangs operating from Atrivo/Intercage will be, for a while, safer. Perhaps one may be wondering about the costs of hosting at Atrivo/Intercage or how to sign up? Well, don't expect to find this information at the company's websites as they were empty for years and for the last year have just shown "Website Coming Soon." http://www.atrivo.com => "InterCage, Inc.. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Last Updated: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:32:59 PM http://www.intercage.com => "InterCage, Inc. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:45:52 PM At one time after being asked, "how on earth does your company get business?" an Atrivo/Intercage representative coyly said, "by word of mouth." That seems to be quite obvious. On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 12:45 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo..com> wrote:
Hello Mark,
It really seems YOU _DID_ miss the memo. I think that since no one else is responding to your non-sense, there is no reason for me to either.
If you have something accurate to say, I'll be happy to listen. Until then, there's not much I can say. There's no sense in repeating myself. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 12:27:50 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Ferg was just being coy -- what you don't understand is there are about 3 other security mailing lists plotting to TAKE YOUR SERVICE DOWN. You FAIL. Law Enforcement might not take action against you (but appear to be interested now), but the community can. GET OFF THE NET WITH YOUR MALWARE!
You mistake me for someone who believes you pack of lies! Don't you understand each time you post to this list gives those of us who know the opportunity to post MORE EVIDENCE of your MALWARE?
You disconnected Hostfresh and think that's the extent of your cimes? Gimme a break. Only those who are easily socially engineered would believe your pathetic claims of innocence. You've BEEN HOSTING MALWARE since 2003 -- SEE Nanog post:
Re: The in-your-face hijacking example http://www.irbs.net/internet/nanog/0305/0038.html
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the public.
Answer Ferg's question -- Why are you moving to CERNAL? Do you think this is going to work? That's just another of Emil's networks.
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
That's just the calm before the storm.
Go ahead and post a response to each of these allegations:
Cybercrime's US Hosts http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Report Slams U.S. Host as Major Source of Badware http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/08/report_slams_us_host_as...
A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/estdomains.html?nav=rss...
ICANN cast as online scam enabler http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/03/cyber_crime_reports/
'Malware-friendly' Intercage back with the living http://www.theregister..co.uk/2008/09/24/intercage_back_online/
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:50 PM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello John Doe,
I welcome any further comments you have. We have to get past people such as yourself, and your blasphemous and false statements.
This is the same issue with the recent media and self-proclaimed "Security Researchers". Fly-by-night mind you.
To help you out in your claims: Yes, we did house a client whom had quite a run with their client's from various locations, such as Russia. That Client is no longer hosted on our network. I myself spent all of monday afternoon, night, and tuesday morning shutting off EVERY machine they had leased in our Billing System. I'm currently working to scan further and see if there's anything I may have missed.
Yes, Russia is very well known for Virus and Malware writer's.
Yes, we have had issues with malware distribution from our network. This was directly and near singularly related to the former client of ours. We did have another client, Hostfresh, whom had their share of malware issues.
Both have been completely and effectively removed. The server's leased to both of them have been canceled, and their machines have been shutoff.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the public. We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com> Cc: Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:08:21 PM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
NANOG:
Look, the people posting here who are trashing Intercage are pure security analysts -- they know and understand the evil that is Intercage. STOP TRYING TO ASSIST INTERCAGE -- you are effectively aiding and abetting the enemy.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the malware c&c botnets that DDoS your systems and networks.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the spyware that compromises your users' passwords.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the adware that slows your customers' machines.
Don't take my word for it, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intercage+malware
You don't get called the ***American RBN*** for hosting a couple bad machines. They have and will continue to host much of the malware pumped out of America. THEY ARE NOT YOUR COMRADES..
These people represent the most HIGHLY ORGANZIED CRIME you will ever come across. Most people were afraid to speak out against them until this recent ground swell.
This is the MALWARE CARTEL. GET THE PICTURE?
Many links have been posted here that prove this already -- instead of asking what customers they cut off, let them show WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LEGIT-- because there are NONE.
I would suggest a different Step 1. Instead of killing power, simply isolate the affected machine. This might be as simple as putting up a firewall rule or two, if it is simply sending outgoing SMTP spam, or it's probably easiest (depending on the network gear of course) to just put the lan port into an isolated VLAN. It's not the 100% solution (some badness rm's itself once it loses connectivity to the internets) but it'd make things simpler for the client/LEA when they need to figure out what happened.
-chris
define:nanog North American Network Operators Group A membership organization that provides for the exchange of tecnical information among public, commercial ... I think this conversation should have ended way long time ago. My $0.50 cents + $1.00 or $2 Regards, Pedram On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:29 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com>wrote:
Hello Mark,
What's YOUR motivation to consistantly attack my company?
What's my motivation to continue working @ InterCage? To keep a roof over my family's heads, and to keep them well-fed: 1.) Myself 2.) My Wife 3.) My near 2 year old Son (November) 4.) My near 3 week old Daughter (Born Sept. 4th)
It's great that you finally accepted the claim of InterCage being associated with the famed "RBN" as being "alledged". You've taken the first step into seeing how much BS information has been spread out about our company.
Whether you support me in my anti-abuse endeavor or not, as long as you get FACTUAL information, I'm happy. However someday, I trust you will find and accept the truth about InterCage. From what I see now from the claims your making, that day may not come soon.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow < christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco < jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:14:01 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Oh I got the memo, you'll be getting served one soon too.
I just wonder why you don't consider playing both sides of the fence -- with your knowledge of who's who in the cyber crime field, you could probably get paid more as an informant (either to LEO or one of the "Intel" companies than whatever you're doing for Emil and (allegedly) the RBN. You can't possible sleep well knowing what your up to now so I figure it's the money that motivates you.
Or, maybe you don't really know anyone, you just respond to their demands and they end up with all the money, pr0n chicks, etc. Doesn't that bother you -- don't you want more?
Plus, no one would know you were pulling two pay checks -- you manage systems on one side and pass info to the other. It's actually fairly simple -- maybe you already know this ;).
If not, please explain this:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Without exception, all of the major security organizations on the Internet agree that the 'Home' of cybercrime in the western world is a firm known as Atrivo/Intercage, based in California. We ourselves have not come to this conclusion lightly but from many years of dealing with criminal operations hosted by Atrivo/Intercage, gangs of cybercriminals - mostly Russian and East European but with several US online crime gangs as well - whose activities always lead back to servers run by Atrivo/Intercage. We have lost count of the times we have tracked a major virus botnet's "command and control" to Atrivo/Intercage servers, readers can view here some of the current and historic SBL records for Atrivo for a taste of what has been happening in this network. At almost every Internet security conference, or law enforcement seminar on cyber-crime, a presentation will detail some attack, exploit, phish or financial crime that has some nexus at Atrivo/Intercage.
The person who runs Atrivo/Intercage, Emil Kacperski is an expert at playing the "surprised janitor", unaware of every new criminal enterprise found on his servers and keen to show he gets rid of some criminals once their activities on his network are exposed. His Internet hosting career first came to the attention of most anti-abuse organizations when he pinched (or 'purchased stolen goods' as he put it) and routed an unused block of 65,536 IP addresses belonging to the County of Los Angeles.
Spamhaus has dealt with over 350 incidents of cyber-crime hosting on Atrivo/Intercage and its related networks in the last 3 years alone, all of which involved criminal operations such as malware, virus spreaders and botnet command and control servers. Malware found by Spamhaus on Atrivo/Intercage/Cernel/Hostfresh just in the last few months included the Storm Worm installer and controller and a MySpace spambot amongst others. Spamhaus currently sees a large amount of activity related to malicious software and exploits being hosted on Atrivo/Intercage which include DNS hijack malware, IFRAME browser attacks, dialers, pirated software websites and blatantly criminal services.
We assume that every law enforcement agency with a cyber-crimes division has a dossier bursting at the seams on Atrivo/Intercage and its tentacles such as Esthost, Estdomains, Cernel, Hostfresh. The only question on everyone's mind is which agency will beat the others to shutting the whole place down and indicting the people behind it. Because if shut down, one thing is certain: the amount of malware-driven crime on the Internet would drop overnight as cyber-criminals rush to find a new crime-friendly host - difficult to find in the US, as Atrivo/Intercage is one of the very few remaining dedicated crime hosting firms whose customer base is composed almost, or perhaps entirely, of criminal gangs. More importantly, millions of Internet users currently being targeted by the malware gangs operating from Atrivo/Intercage will be, for a while, safer.
Perhaps one may be wondering about the costs of hosting at Atrivo/Intercage or how to sign up? Well, don't expect to find this information at the company's websites as they were empty for years and for the last year have just shown "Website Coming Soon."
http://www.atrivo.com => "InterCage, Inc.. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Last Updated: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:32:59 PM
http://www.intercage.com => "InterCage, Inc. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:45:52 PM
At one time after being asked, "how on earth does your company get business?" an Atrivo/Intercage representative coyly said, "by word of mouth." That seems to be quite obvious.
Hello Mark,
It really seems YOU _DID_ miss the memo. I think that since no one else is responding to your non-sense, there is no reason for me to either.
If you have something accurate to say, I'll be happy to listen. Until then, there's not much I can say. There's no sense in repeating myself. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow < christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco < jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 12:27:50 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Ferg was just being coy -- what you don't understand is there are about 3 other security mailing lists plotting to TAKE YOUR SERVICE DOWN. You FAIL. Law Enforcement might not take action against you (but appear to be interested now), but the community can. GET OFF THE NET WITH YOUR MALWARE!
You mistake me for someone who believes you pack of lies! Don't you understand each time you post to this list gives those of us who know the opportunity to post MORE EVIDENCE of your MALWARE?
You disconnected Hostfresh and think that's the extent of your cimes? Gimme a break. Only those who are easily socially engineered would believe your pathetic claims of innocence. You've BEEN HOSTING MALWARE since 2003 -- SEE Nanog post:
Re: The in-your-face hijacking example http://www.irbs.net/internet/nanog/0305/0038.html
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 12:45 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo..com> wrote: public.
Answer Ferg's question -- Why are you moving to CERNAL? Do you think this is going to work? That's just another of Emil's networks.
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
That's just the calm before the storm.
Go ahead and post a response to each of these allegations:
Cybercrime's US Hosts http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Report Slams U.S. Host as Major Source of Badware
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/08/report_slams_us_host_as...
A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/estdomains.html?nav=rss...
ICANN cast as online scam enabler http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/03/cyber_crime_reports/
'Malware-friendly' Intercage back with the living http://www.theregister..co.uk/2008/09/24/intercage_back_online/
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:50 PM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com>
Hello John Doe,
I welcome any further comments you have. We have to get past people such as yourself, and your blasphemous and
false statements.
This is the same issue with the recent media and self-proclaimed
"Security Researchers". Fly-by-night mind you.
To help you out in your claims: Yes, we did house a client whom had quite a run with their client's from
various locations, such as Russia.
That Client is no longer hosted on our network. I myself spent all of monday afternoon, night, and tuesday morning shutting off EVERY machine they had leased in our Billing System. I'm currently working to scan further and see if there's anything I may have missed.
Yes, Russia is very well known for Virus and Malware writer's.
Yes, we have had issues with malware distribution from our network. This was directly and near singularly related to the former client of ours. We did have another client, Hostfresh, whom had their share of malware issues.
Both have been completely and effectively removed. The server's leased to both of them have been canceled, and their machines have been shutoff.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com> Cc: Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:08:21 PM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
NANOG:
Look, the people posting here who are trashing Intercage are pure security analysts -- they know and understand the evil that is Intercage. STOP TRYING TO ASSIST INTERCAGE -- you are effectively aiding and abetting the enemy.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the malware c&c botnets that DDoS your systems and networks.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the spyware that compromises your users'
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the adware that slows your customers' machines.
Don't take my word for it, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intercage+malware
You don't get called the ***American RBN*** for hosting a couple bad machines. They have and will continue to host much of the malware pumped out of
America.
THEY ARE NOT YOUR COMRADES..
These people represent the most HIGHLY ORGANZIED CRIME you will ever come across. Most people were afraid to speak out against them until
wrote: public. passwords. this
recent ground swell.
This is the MALWARE CARTEL. GET THE PICTURE?
Many links have been posted here that prove this already -- instead of asking what customers they cut off, let them show WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LEGIT-- because there are NONE.
I would suggest a different Step 1. Instead of killing power, simply isolate the affected machine. This might be as simple as putting up a firewall rule or two, if it is simply sending outgoing SMTP spam, or it's probably easiest (depending on the network gear of course) to just put the lan port into an isolated VLAN. It's not the 100% solution (some badness rm's itself once it loses connectivity to the internets) but it'd make things simpler for the client/LEA when they need to figure out what happened.
-chris
It's actually starting to look like WHT. On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:35 AM, Pedram M <pmessri@gmail.com> wrote:
define:nanog
North American Network Operators Group A membership organization that provides for the exchange of tecnical information among public, commercial ...
I think this conversation should have ended way long time ago.
My $0.50 cents + $1.00 or $2
Regards, Pedram
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 1:29 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com>wrote:
Hello Mark,
What's YOUR motivation to consistantly attack my company?
What's my motivation to continue working @ InterCage? To keep a roof over my family's heads, and to keep them well-fed: 1.) Myself 2.) My Wife 3.) My near 2 year old Son (November) 4.) My near 3 week old Daughter (Born Sept. 4th)
It's great that you finally accepted the claim of InterCage being associated with the famed "RBN" as being "alledged". You've taken the first step into seeing how much BS information has been spread out about our company.
Whether you support me in my anti-abuse endeavor or not, as long as you get FACTUAL information, I'm happy. However someday, I trust you will find and accept the truth about InterCage. From what I see now from the claims your making, that day may not come soon.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow < christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco < jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:14:01 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Oh I got the memo, you'll be getting served one soon too.
I just wonder why you don't consider playing both sides of the fence -- with your knowledge of who's who in the cyber crime field, you could probably get paid more as an informant (either to LEO or one of the "Intel" companies than whatever you're doing for Emil and (allegedly) the RBN. You can't possible sleep well knowing what your up to now so I figure it's the money that motivates you.
Or, maybe you don't really know anyone, you just respond to their demands and they end up with all the money, pr0n chicks, etc. Doesn't that bother you -- don't you want more?
Plus, no one would know you were pulling two pay checks -- you manage systems on one side and pass info to the other. It's actually fairly simple -- maybe you already know this ;).
If not, please explain this:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Without exception, all of the major security organizations on the Internet agree that the 'Home' of cybercrime in the western world is a firm known as Atrivo/Intercage, based in California. We ourselves have not come to this conclusion lightly but from many years of dealing with criminal operations hosted by Atrivo/Intercage, gangs of cybercriminals - mostly Russian and East European but with several US online crime gangs as well - whose activities always lead back to servers run by Atrivo/Intercage. We have lost count of the times we have tracked a major virus botnet's "command and control" to Atrivo/Intercage servers, readers can view here some of the current and historic SBL records for Atrivo for a taste of what has been happening in this network. At almost every Internet security conference, or law enforcement seminar on cyber-crime, a presentation will detail some attack, exploit, phish or financial crime that has some nexus at Atrivo/Intercage.
The person who runs Atrivo/Intercage, Emil Kacperski is an expert at playing the "surprised janitor", unaware of every new criminal enterprise found on his servers and keen to show he gets rid of some criminals once their activities on his network are exposed. His Internet hosting career first came to the attention of most anti-abuse organizations when he pinched (or 'purchased stolen goods' as he put it) and routed an unused block of 65,536 IP addresses belonging to the County of Los Angeles.
Spamhaus has dealt with over 350 incidents of cyber-crime hosting on Atrivo/Intercage and its related networks in the last 3 years alone, all of which involved criminal operations such as malware, virus spreaders and botnet command and control servers. Malware found by Spamhaus on Atrivo/Intercage/Cernel/Hostfresh just in the last few months included the Storm Worm installer and controller and a MySpace spambot amongst others. Spamhaus currently sees a large amount of activity related to malicious software and exploits being hosted on Atrivo/Intercage which include DNS hijack malware, IFRAME browser attacks, dialers, pirated software websites and blatantly criminal services.
We assume that every law enforcement agency with a cyber-crimes division has a dossier bursting at the seams on Atrivo/Intercage and its tentacles such as Esthost, Estdomains, Cernel, Hostfresh. The only question on everyone's mind is which agency will beat the others to shutting the whole place down and indicting the people behind it. Because if shut down, one thing is certain: the amount of malware-driven crime on the Internet would drop overnight as cyber-criminals rush to find a new crime-friendly host - difficult to find in the US, as Atrivo/Intercage is one of the very few remaining dedicated crime hosting firms whose customer base is composed almost, or perhaps entirely, of criminal gangs. More importantly, millions of Internet users currently being targeted by the malware gangs operating from Atrivo/Intercage will be, for a while, safer.
Perhaps one may be wondering about the costs of hosting at Atrivo/Intercage or how to sign up? Well, don't expect to find this information at the company's websites as they were empty for years and for the last year have just shown "Website Coming Soon."
http://www.atrivo.com => "InterCage, Inc.. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Last Updated: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:32:59 PM
http://www.intercage.com => "InterCage, Inc. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:45:52 PM
At one time after being asked, "how on earth does your company get business?" an Atrivo/Intercage representative coyly said, "by word of mouth." That seems to be quite obvious.
Hello Mark,
It really seems YOU _DID_ miss the memo. I think that since no one else is responding to your non-sense, there is no reason for me to either.
If you have something accurate to say, I'll be happy to listen. Until then, there's not much I can say. There's no sense in repeating myself. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow < christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco < jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 12:27:50 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Ferg was just being coy -- what you don't understand is there are about 3 other security mailing lists plotting to TAKE YOUR SERVICE DOWN. You FAIL. Law Enforcement might not take action against you (but appear to be interested now), but the community can. GET OFF THE NET WITH YOUR MALWARE!
You mistake me for someone who believes you pack of lies! Don't you understand each time you post to this list gives those of us who know the opportunity to post MORE EVIDENCE of your MALWARE?
You disconnected Hostfresh and think that's the extent of your cimes? Gimme a break. Only those who are easily socially engineered would believe your pathetic claims of innocence. You've BEEN HOSTING MALWARE since 2003 -- SEE Nanog post:
Re: The in-your-face hijacking example http://www.irbs.net/internet/nanog/0305/0038.html
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 12:45 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo..com> wrote: public.
Answer Ferg's question -- Why are you moving to CERNAL? Do you think
this
is going to work? That's just another of Emil's networks.
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
That's just the calm before the storm.
Go ahead and post a response to each of these allegations:
Cybercrime's US Hosts http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Report Slams U.S. Host as Major Source of Badware
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/08/report_slams_us_host_as...
A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/estdomains.html?nav=rss...
ICANN cast as online scam enabler http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/03/cyber_crime_reports/
'Malware-friendly' Intercage back with the living http://www.theregister..co.uk/2008/09/24/intercage_back_online/
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:50 PM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com>
Hello John Doe,
I welcome any further comments you have. We have to get past people such as yourself, and your blasphemous and
false statements.
This is the same issue with the recent media and self-proclaimed
"Security Researchers". Fly-by-night mind you.
To help you out in your claims: Yes, we did house a client whom had quite a run with their client's
from various locations, such as Russia.
That Client is no longer hosted on our network. I myself spent all of monday afternoon, night, and tuesday morning shutting off EVERY machine they had leased in our Billing System. I'm currently working to scan further and see if there's anything I may have missed.
Yes, Russia is very well known for Virus and Malware writer's.
Yes, we have had issues with malware distribution from our network. This was directly and near singularly related to the former client of ours. We did have another client, Hostfresh, whom had their share of malware issues.
Both have been completely and effectively removed. The server's leased to both of them have been canceled, and their machines have been shutoff.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com> Cc: Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:08:21 PM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
NANOG:
Look, the people posting here who are trashing Intercage are pure security analysts -- they know and understand the evil that is Intercage. STOP TRYING TO ASSIST INTERCAGE -- you are effectively aiding and abetting the enemy.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the malware c&c botnets that DDoS your systems and networks.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the spyware that compromises your users'
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the adware that slows your customers' machines.
Don't take my word for it, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intercage+malware
You don't get called the ***American RBN*** for hosting a couple bad machines. They have and will continue to host much of the malware pumped out of
America.
THEY ARE NOT YOUR COMRADES..
These people represent the most HIGHLY ORGANZIED CRIME you will ever come across. Most people were afraid to speak out against them until
recent ground swell.
This is the MALWARE CARTEL. GET THE PICTURE?
Many links have been posted here that prove this already -- instead of asking what customers they cut off, let them show WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LEGIT-- because there are NONE.
> I would suggest a different Step 1. Instead of killing power, simply > isolate the affected machine. This might be as simple as putting up a > firewall rule or two, if it is simply sending outgoing SMTP spam, or it's probably easiest (depending on the network gear of course) to just put the lan port into an isolated VLAN. It's not the 100% solution (some badness rm's itself once it loses connectivity to
internets) but it'd make things simpler for the client/LEA when
wrote: public. passwords. this the they
need to figure out what happened.
-chris
On Wed, 24 Sep 2008, Russell Mitchell wrote:
Hello Mark,
What's YOUR motivation to consistantly attack my company?
I don't know this Mark, but it seems like he is copying your strategy of "stay up last and you win" as you both make little sense. Gadi.
What's my motivation to continue working @ InterCage? To keep a roof over my family's heads, and to keep them well-fed: 1.) Myself 2.) My Wife 3.) My near 2 year old Son (November) 4.) My near 3 week old Daughter (Born Sept. 4th)
It's great that you finally accepted the claim of InterCage being associated with the famed "RBN" as being "alledged". You've taken the first step into seeing how much BS information has been spread out about our company.
Whether you support me in my anti-abuse endeavor or not, as long as you get FACTUAL information, I'm happy. However someday, I trust you will find and accept the truth about InterCage. From what I see now from the claims your making, that day may not come soon.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:14:01 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Oh I got the memo, you'll be getting served one soon too.
I just wonder why you don't consider playing both sides of the fence -- with your knowledge of who's who in the cyber crime field, you could probably get paid more as an informant (either to LEO or one of the "Intel" companies than whatever you're doing for Emil and (allegedly) the RBN. You can't possible sleep well knowing what your up to now so I figure it's the money that motivates you.
Or, maybe you don't really know anyone, you just respond to their demands and they end up with all the money, pr0n chicks, etc. Doesn't that bother you -- don't you want more?
Plus, no one would know you were pulling two pay checks -- you manage systems on one side and pass info to the other. It's actually fairly simple -- maybe you already know this ;).
If not, please explain this:
http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Without exception, all of the major security organizations on the Internet agree that the 'Home' of cybercrime in the western world is a firm known as Atrivo/Intercage, based in California. We ourselves have not come to this conclusion lightly but from many years of dealing with criminal operations hosted by Atrivo/Intercage, gangs of cybercriminals - mostly Russian and East European but with several US online crime gangs as well - whose activities always lead back to servers run by Atrivo/Intercage. We have lost count of the times we have tracked a major virus botnet's "command and control" to Atrivo/Intercage servers, readers can view here some of the current and historic SBL records for Atrivo for a taste of what has been happening in this network. At almost every Internet security conference, or law enforcement seminar on cyber-crime, a presentation will detail some attack, exploit, phish or financial crime that has some nexus at Atrivo/Intercage.
The person who runs Atrivo/Intercage, Emil Kacperski is an expert at playing the "surprised janitor", unaware of every new criminal enterprise found on his servers and keen to show he gets rid of some criminals once their activities on his network are exposed. His Internet hosting career first came to the attention of most anti-abuse organizations when he pinched (or 'purchased stolen goods' as he put it) and routed an unused block of 65,536 IP addresses belonging to the County of Los Angeles.
Spamhaus has dealt with over 350 incidents of cyber-crime hosting on Atrivo/Intercage and its related networks in the last 3 years alone, all of which involved criminal operations such as malware, virus spreaders and botnet command and control servers. Malware found by Spamhaus on Atrivo/Intercage/Cernel/Hostfresh just in the last few months included the Storm Worm installer and controller and a MySpace spambot amongst others. Spamhaus currently sees a large amount of activity related to malicious software and exploits being hosted on Atrivo/Intercage which include DNS hijack malware, IFRAME browser attacks, dialers, pirated software websites and blatantly criminal services.
We assume that every law enforcement agency with a cyber-crimes division has a dossier bursting at the seams on Atrivo/Intercage and its tentacles such as Esthost, Estdomains, Cernel, Hostfresh. The only question on everyone's mind is which agency will beat the others to shutting the whole place down and indicting the people behind it. Because if shut down, one thing is certain: the amount of malware-driven crime on the Internet would drop overnight as cyber-criminals rush to find a new crime-friendly host - difficult to find in the US, as Atrivo/Intercage is one of the very few remaining dedicated crime hosting firms whose customer base is composed almost, or perhaps entirely, of criminal gangs. More importantly, millions of Internet users currently being targeted by the malware gangs operating from Atrivo/Intercage will be, for a while, safer.
Perhaps one may be wondering about the costs of hosting at Atrivo/Intercage or how to sign up? Well, don't expect to find this information at the company's websites as they were empty for years and for the last year have just shown "Website Coming Soon."
http://www.atrivo.com => "InterCage, Inc.. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Last Updated: Thursday, September 06, 2007 4:32:59 PM
http://www.intercage.com => "InterCage, Inc. INTENSE SERVERS. Website Coming Soon:" Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:45:52 PM
At one time after being asked, "how on earth does your company get business?" an Atrivo/Intercage representative coyly said, "by word of mouth." That seems to be quite obvious.
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 12:45 AM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo..com> wrote:
Hello Mark,
It really seems YOU _DID_ miss the memo. I think that since no one else is responding to your non-sense, there is no reason for me to either.
If you have something accurate to say, I'll be happy to listen. Until then, there's not much I can say. There's no sense in repeating myself. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> Cc: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com>; Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 12:27:50 AM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
Russell:
Ferg was just being coy -- what you don't understand is there are about 3 other security mailing lists plotting to TAKE YOUR SERVICE DOWN. You FAIL. Law Enforcement might not take action against you (but appear to be interested now), but the community can. GET OFF THE NET WITH YOUR MALWARE!
You mistake me for someone who believes you pack of lies! Don't you understand each time you post to this list gives those of us who know the opportunity to post MORE EVIDENCE of your MALWARE?
You disconnected Hostfresh and think that's the extent of your cimes? Gimme a break. Only those who are easily socially engineered would believe your pathetic claims of innocence. You've BEEN HOSTING MALWARE since 2003 -- SEE Nanog post:
Re: The in-your-face hijacking example http://www.irbs.net/internet/nanog/0305/0038.html
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the public.
Answer Ferg's question -- Why are you moving to CERNAL? Do you think this is going to work? That's just another of Emil's networks.
We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
That's just the calm before the storm.
Go ahead and post a response to each of these allegations:
Cybercrime's US Hosts http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=636
Report Slams U.S. Host as Major Source of Badware http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/08/report_slams_us_host_as...
A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/estdomains.html?nav=rss...
ICANN cast as online scam enabler http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/03/cyber_crime_reports/
'Malware-friendly' Intercage back with the living http://www.theregister..co.uk/2008/09/24/intercage_back_online/
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 11:50 PM, Russell Mitchell <russm2k8@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello John Doe,
I welcome any further comments you have. We have to get past people such as yourself, and your blasphemous and false statements.
This is the same issue with the recent media and self-proclaimed "Security Researchers". Fly-by-night mind you.
To help you out in your claims: Yes, we did house a client whom had quite a run with their client's from various locations, such as Russia. That Client is no longer hosted on our network. I myself spent all of monday afternoon, night, and tuesday morning shutting off EVERY machine they had leased in our Billing System. I'm currently working to scan further and see if there's anything I may have missed.
Yes, Russia is very well known for Virus and Malware writer's.
Yes, we have had issues with malware distribution from our network. This was directly and near singularly related to the former client of ours. We did have another client, Hostfresh, whom had their share of malware issues.
Both have been completely and effectively removed. The server's leased to both of them have been canceled, and their machines have been shutoff.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to state to the public. We're on a rocky road right now. But it IS starting to smooth out.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day. --- Russell Mitchell
InterCage, Inc.
----- Original Message ---- From: Mark Foo <mark.foo.dog@gmail.com> To: Bruce Williams <williams.bruce@gmail.com> Cc: Christopher Morrow <christopher.morrow@gmail.com>; nanog@nanog.org; Joe Greco <jgreco@ns.sol.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:08:21 PM Subject: Re: YAY! Re: Atrivo/Intercage: NO Upstream depeer
NANOG:
Look, the people posting here who are trashing Intercage are pure security analysts -- they know and understand the evil that is Intercage. STOP TRYING TO ASSIST INTERCAGE -- you are effectively aiding and abetting the enemy.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the malware c&c botnets that DDoS your systems and networks.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the spyware that compromises your users' passwords.
Intercage/Atrivo hosts the adware that slows your customers' machines.
Don't take my word for it, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intercage+malware
You don't get called the ***American RBN*** for hosting a couple bad machines. They have and will continue to host much of the malware pumped out of America. THEY ARE NOT YOUR COMRADES..
These people represent the most HIGHLY ORGANZIED CRIME you will ever come across. Most people were afraid to speak out against them until this recent ground swell.
This is the MALWARE CARTEL. GET THE PICTURE?
Many links have been posted here that prove this already -- instead of asking what customers they cut off, let them show WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LEGIT-- because there are NONE.
I would suggest a different Step 1. Instead of killing power, simply isolate the affected machine. This might be as simple as putting up a firewall rule or two, if it is simply sending outgoing SMTP spam, or it's probably easiest (depending on the network gear of course) to just put the lan port into an isolated VLAN. It's not the 100% solution (some badness rm's itself once it loses connectivity to the internets) but it'd make things simpler for the client/LEA when they need to figure out what happened.
-chris
Anyone have a measurement so that we can see the impact and give Intercage some credit and set a baseline, regardless of how they got there, and move on? -M<
participants (4)
-
Gadi Evron -
Martin Hannigan -
Pedram M -
Russell Mitchell