FTC to look into security and privacy of cloud computing

America’s Federal Trade Commission will hold a roundtable discussion later this month on the privacy and security of cloud computing. Social networking and mobile computing will also be covered.

David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated in a letter to the government agency:

…the ability of cloud computing services to collect and centrally store increasing amounts of consumer data, combined with the ease with which such centrally stored data may be shared with others, create a risk that larger amounts of data may be used by entities in ways not originally intended or understood by consumers.

The discussion is slated for January 28. The security and reliability of cloud computing have been under consumer scrutiny for some time. The FTC is also concerned about the wide amount of data social networking sites have access to and how it might pose a threat to consumer privacy.

Source | Data Center Knowledge

FTC: Company Tried to Trick UK Customers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is pursuing litigation against a California-based company called Balls of Kryptonite for allegedly using using websites on two .co.uk country domains to trick UK customers into thinking the company was local. According to the charges, the company had two domains, bestpricebrands.co.uk and bitesizedeals.co.uk, and used the websites to sell electronics such as cameras and video games.

UK customers saw no indications that the company was international and purchased goods from them. But when the items arrived, they received unexpected import charges, invalid warranties, and huge cancellation fees. Customers sent complaints to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which in turn collaborated with the US-based FTC.

This is not the first time that foreign companies have used UK domain names to appear local. Reports estimate that there could be as many as 480,000 sites with co.uk country domains that are not based in the UK. Most of them are based in China. Customers should therefore use caution when ordering from unfamiliar companies, and if they are not sure, they can use Whois lookup to determine the location of the domain’s owner.

Source: The Independent
Photo: Flickr

Triple Fiber Network Responds to Shutdown

A week ago from today, the FTC shut down California web host Triple Fiber Network (3FN) for hosting illegal content, including child pornography, malware, and the infamous “Cutwail” botnet.

In a press release riddled with broken English and grammatical errors, the company responded to the shutdown.

Triple Fiber blasted the FTC for shutting down all its servers without prior notification and went on to declare its innocence, claiming it “never provided any services for illegal businesses intentionally.” It offered to help with the investigation, but added there was no evidence to convict it of wrongdoing.

Our company has always been willing to assist authorities in their investigations. Accusing the provider in illegal actions made by its customers is not the way out and will not solve anything. It causing more damage to law-abiding customers than helps successfully fighting cyber criminals.

The company also stated that the evidence the FTC collected against it, including instant message logs of sales pitches to spammers and hackers, “can not be the evidence of [3FN] complicity.”

Triple Fiber Network said millions of dollars have been lost so far by the shutdown. It claims to be doing everything in its power to recover customer accounts, but has not revealed in what manner it is doing so and what, if any, progress has been made.

Photo: Flickr

FTC Shuts Down California Web Host

Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission shut down a California web hosting firm for involvement in spam operations. This is the first time the FTC has ever taken action against a hosting provider.

The company, Triple Fiber Network, hosted some 15,000 websites at a data center in San Jose, California. The sites were taken offline Tuesday after the FTC told its bandwidth provider to stop routing the host’s traffic.

Triple Fiber allegedly hosted all sorts of illegal content, including malware and child pornography. “Anything bad on the Internet, they were involved in it,” FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz said. “We’re very proud, because in one fell swoop we’ve gone after a big facilitator of some of the utterly worst conduct.”

The FTC stated:

[Triple Fiber Network] hosts very little legitimate content and vast quantities of illegal, malicious, and harmful content, including child pornography, botnet command and control servers, spyware, viruses, trojans, phishing related sites, illegal online pharmacies, investment and other Web-based scams, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.

The black market provider also hosted the control servers for one of the world’s largest botnets, “Cutwail.” According to the government agency, the host marketed itself to overseas criminals by placing ads in the “darkest corners of the Internet.”

Most of the host’s personnel work overseas. In a message to customers, Three Fiber promised to be back up within days in another location. Meanwhile, some of its customers have already found other hosts and have placed their illegal content back online.

Source: Washington Post
Photo: Flickr