Conduit for Cybercrime

Shadowy Russian Firm Seen as Conduit for Cybercrime

By Brian Krebs

washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Saturday, October 13, 2007; Page A15

This article talks about a Russian based internet service provider called Russian Business Network that provides website hosting for to many cyber-criminals including phishers and child pornography posters. They provide these services at a much higher charge than normal service providers but they have a "bulletproof" system that makes it nearly impossible for an outsider to shut down these websites. The Russian government has not made any attempts to go after this business or shut down the sites. This business brings up a few interesting points regarding cyberlaw.

First off, since this business is located in Russia, other governments can not go after them. This is sort of a weird concept considering that it is affecting people all over the world. This raises a great question of whether or not we need an international agreement to set up an independent committee/ international cyber court to regulate the internet.

Another issue that this raises is whether or not the company is even performing an illegal act. They are simply providing a web hosting service, they are not the ones are doing the phishing and illegal acts. Certainly, if this company was in the US it would either be shut down or it would be forced to shut down the illegal sites, even though the business is most likely clean from violating the law.