What a lot of empty talk about Mobile WiMAX this week. If you're finding it hard to understand, here's a translation:
(VRSN)(EBAY)
Last week I noted a problem reporting a phishing email to eBay. I'm pleased to report that the phishing website -- ebaychristmas.net -- is now down. However, I'm not pleased to report how long it took. The detail behind the delay is instructive...
From first report to takedown took 13 days (November 25 to December 7), which is simply unacceptable. However, despite the hilarious response from their "Trust and Safety Department," you should note that eBay wasn't the main factor in this delay. Indeed, the company claims that it first started takedown proceedings on November 8.
The main issue was that the phishing webserver was hosted on a botnet of virus-compromised PCs. The DNS entry for the web site served up a sequence of IP addresses, so that requests for the webpage could go to one of many machines. In other words, taking down "the website" wasn't an option.
Removing the DNS entry was the only practical takedown option. However, the DNS registrar for the domain -- Joker.com, a small company based in Switzerland -- was completely unresponsive to all requests to investigate. Finally, it seems Verisign -- the controller of the .net top-level domain stepped in and removed authority for ebaychristmas.net away from Joker.com. Now requests for the web site come back "no such host."
This sorry saga illustrates the fact that it's important for domain registrars to act quickly and responsibly when abuses such as phishing are brought to their attention. Authorities upstream of the registrar need to be able to exercise some sort of leverage if they don't act.
(EBAY)(VRSN)
At last! Looks like Verisign pulled rank on Joker.com...
Query for www.ebaychristmas.net type=255 class=1
net SOA (Zone of Authority)
Primary NS: a.gtld-servers.net
Responsible person: nstld@verisign-grs.com
serial:1133973872
refresh:1800s (30 minutes)
retry:900s (15 minutes)
expire:604800s (7 days)
minimum-ttl:900s (15 minutes)
That was a hairy few days of web server load. Hello to all my new readers, anyway.
My eBay story was picked up in several places including:
Digg (on the home page for a while)
Netcraft
Techdirt
Memeorandum
PC World
Yahoo! (was the #1 most viewed tech news item for a while)
eWeek
PC Magazine (although they truncated it and I'm not mentioned)
PC World Greece
Computerworld (no link -- and this is the thanks I get for ITBW?)
Upsize This
ComputerWorld Australia
Vitalsecurity
Mediaprima
The Ross Show
Tulip Tools
Intern.de
CSO Magazine
PC World Australia
ComputerPartner Netherlands
InfoWorld Netherlands
Addict3d
Winnipeg Sun
Computerworld New Zealand
PC Advisor (UK)
Golem
EvilEbayEmpire
Auction Info
PA Pundits
TechNudge