ICANN today issued a formal and, we assume, irrevocable notice of termination to EstDomains President Vladimir Tsastsin:
Be advised that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for EstDomains, Inc. (Customer No. 919, IANA No. 832) is terminated. Consistent with subsection 5.3.3 of the RAA, this termination is based on your status as President of EstDomains and your credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery conviction. This termination shall be effective within fifteen calendar days from the date of this letter, on 12 November 2008.
EstDomains has been suspected by many as a source of domain registration malfeasance for use by cyber-criminals and spammers for years. As recently described within a HostExploit.com report, Sunbelt Software and Spamhaus have called out EstDomains. Brian Krebs followed up in The Washington Post.
EstDomains has been trying to fight back, issuing press releases with headlines like "EstDomains, Inc Takes Next Step in Combating Spam and Malware," stating, "Once again EstDomains, Inc would like to address the interactive community and ask for co-operation to make the Internet clear and safe." Unfortunately this coincided with another Krebs post relating to Tsastsin, "A Sordid History and a Storied CEO."
As a result of ICANN's newfound boldness, approximately 281,000 domain names under EstDomains' management will be transferred to an ICANN-Accredited Registrar in accordance with ICANN's "De-accredited Registrar Transition Procedure."
In its statement, ICANN noted "It is ICANN's goal to protect registrants' from unnecessary harm and we look forward to amicably resolving any domain name transition issues that may arise from this termination." ICANN has also released other Notices of Breach and Termination to an ICANN-accredited registrar, Beijing Innovative Linkage Technology Ltd., doing business as DNS.com.cn and Joker.com, on Sept. 30, 2008. These are available here.
These registrars failed to comply with Section 3.7.8 of the RAA, which requires registrars to take "reasonable steps to investigate" Whois.Net inaccuracy claims. Section 3.7.8 requires registrars, "...upon notification by any person of an inaccuracy in the contact information associated with a Registered Name sponsored by Registrar, [to] take reasonable steps to investigate the claimed inaccuracy. In the event Registrar learns of inaccurate contact information associated with a Registered Name it sponsors, it shall take reasonable steps to correct that inaccuracy."
Hopefully, this demonstrates a new aggressiveness from ICANN where enforcement is concerned and a willingness to listen to a community besieged by spammers and worse. Perhaps ICANN could also be persuaded to allow the Internet security community to advise which of these domains is abusive before any transfer is made to a new registrar.
— Jart Armin, Editor of RBNexploit.com, a watch blog on the infamous RBN (Russian Business
Network), and HostExploit.com
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More good news in the fight against spam and network abuse, Jart... my hope here is that this incident stiffens the resolve of ICANN, NANOG, and individual ISPs to step in here more aggressively, if only to make it more inconvenient for these guys to move down the block and set up shop in a new storefront.
It's still unclear to me how much enforcement authority ICANN really has. It appears the violations have to be really egregious before they investigate or act. A recent poll we conducted on this site about who should oversee this sort of thing was pretty inconclusive, with most respondents voting in favor of creating a new entity to handle enforcement and TOS violations.
Just to update ICANN have today confirmed "Termination of Registrar EstDomains to Go Ahead" (ICANN announcement here), a copy of the notice of termination here (PDF).
For ICANN watchers there were a few days of trepidation as they had announced a stay of execution, while an appeal was considered. So another positive and secure move for the Internet, a sign of the times perhaps. A small step for ICANN, a big step for the community?
Yes. Just as every person is supposed to have the right to use the Internet, government also have their own bases for making restrictions in accordance with their internal policies. What we just hope for any Cyber superbody is to ensure security in the Internet especially for those who do not have the technical knowhow of defending themselves against cybercriminals and to ensure users the "freest" and safest use and enjoyment of the cyberspace.
Any global Web oversight body could hardly be expected to direct the actions of individual member states who choose to retrict access to the Internet. That's a matter for the individual countries to decide.
What could and should be under jurisdiction of such a body is a safe starting point, free of criminal activity and spam that robs networks not only of security but also of bandwidth and reliability.
Well, what I only wish for a UN-like superbody is to help ensure that the Internet be secured from cybercriminals and to make it safest for ordinary users like us. Just like I said one of the important things that the superbody should do is to ensure that the simplest Internet user should enjoy the cyberspace without worry.
I hope your wish of ICANN becoming the UN is not realised! If that should be the case, then we are in for very troubling times in cyberland. I just can't live to see another UN like organization strangling the internet and making the likes of China to dictates what should be done.
This reminds me about the Internet Governace Forum(IGF) which is certainly becoming an embarssment. In their annual meeting last year in Japan to discuss pertinent issues affecting the internet, china and other who extend their evil on the internet had to set the agenda to ensure that some sensitive issues are not discuss during the proceedings. These organizations are all dancing to the tune of major corporations and governments and hadly do things to help ordinary users like us.
It is really important that a superbody should also be recognized and agreed upon to become the UN of the cuberspace. In this era of electronic crime, there is also a need for an electronic security force. Just as we have a UN Security Council, perhaps we should also have an Cyberspace Security Council.
One important thing that this superbody should do aside from safeguarding the Internet from cybercriminals is to ensure that the most ordinary user is given the best security so that the Internet really becomes a tool for progress and development, peace and harmony.
I totally agree that ICANN made the right move. It could be doing more, though. Perhaps another body or agency should be taking even more aggressive action. This comes very late in the game, hardly making it a deterrent to similar sources of fraud and abuse.
In complete agreement with you, mtechie. And it seems like what ICANN did was find a loophole -- Tsastsin's convictions in Estonia on charges of credit card fraud, forgery, and money laundering were the cited as the reason for termination -- as opposed to providing cover for spammers, or gaming the domain registration system.
It's kind of like IRS going after Al Capone for tax evasion -- the least of his sins, but a technicality that brought down the whole operation.
So apparently ICANN can dump those who don't disclose a criminal past. If they don't have sharper enforcement teeth than this, shouldn't they?
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