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The names of the two Chinese domain registrars allegedly responsible for a large chunk of the world’s spam, have come under fire from University of Alabama’s director of research, Gary Warner. Last week I posted a short entry about Warner’s research, concluding that 70 percent of spam originated in China. Warner has now identified two companies: eName and Xin Net Technology as the two registrars that provide the spammers with safe havens.
According to Warner, 34,283 malicious domains are linked to Xin Net. Registrants of their domains deal in all sorts of crimes, from unregulated drugs to software piracy. eName is linked to several security attackers, including botnets. Warner argues that these registrars could actively prevent these illicit activities and shut down these domains.
With eName, “we are seeing an absolute refusal to cooperate with any legitimate form of an abuse complaint,” Warner said. Xin Net will take minor action when pressed with a complaint, he said.
Rod Beckstrom, newly appointed ICANN president and CEO, has already hinted that new regulations could be on the horizon. Companies like eName and Xin Net could be restricted from registering domains names altogether if they refuse to deal with this type of abuse. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has a team that deals with complaints, but it is undermanned and receives as many as 9,000 complaints per day.
