In China, $700 puts a spammer in business

08.05.2009
It's a great deal, if you're a spammer.

You pay US$700 to use a server in China that lets you send all the spam you like. It's called bulletproof hosting, and to the people who fight spam and cybercrime it's becoming a big problem.

Cybercriminals use these services not just to host servers, but also to register Internet domain names that they use for spam and online attacks. In a three-month period this year, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham traced more than 22,300 domains, all used to send online pharmaceutical spam, to just six bulletproof computers hosted in China, said Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics at the university.

The Waledac Trojan, which uses clever social-engineering techniques to spread itself, has been using bulletproof domain names to keep itself alive, Warner said. "We had over 70 domains that the entire community worked their butts off and tried for four months to try to shut," he said. "Because we can't shut down the domain names we can't shut down the spread of the virus."

Bulletproof domain-name registration is even cheaper than bulletproof servers. A criminal can anonymously register a bulletproof domain for

Several dozen bulletproof hosting services operate worldwide, but the "vast majority" of them are in China, Warner said. Even scammers from countries considered soft on spam use the services because they are so reliable, he added. "Even the Russians use the Chinese bulletproof registrars."