the secure:channel

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In an article on Government Computer News, William Jackson reported that 90 percent of the web sites advertised in spam e-mail are at domain names registered at just 20 of the 800 ICANN accredited registrars. A registrar is a first line distributor where you can purchase the use of a domain name.

This information, Jackson says, was gleaned from a report from KnujOn, which is “No Junk” spelled backwards. KnuJon is an organization that supposedly targets spammer owned web sites. Claims on the KnujOn site say that they’ve shut down over 50 thousand junk mail sites. I don’t see any information on the site that says how they’ve accomplished this. I was also unable to locate any such report on the KnujOn web site. KnujOn does have a report that lists their top 10 worst registrars in terms of spam advertised sites.

One of the registrars listed is Dynamic Dolphin, which the KunjOn site owner links back to a possible owner of Scott Richter, the most infamous self admitted spammer in the spam industry’s history. From the look of their web site, Dynamic Dolphin is using the services of Directi, an Indian company which helps businesses get started with becoming their own domain name registrar through their LogicBoxes brand. KnunOn claims that over 17 percent of all of the domains registered by Dynamic Dolphin have been identified as being advertised in spam.

While the information seems sensational, it’s nothing new, but Jackson reports that ICANN is taking action by putting these companies on alert. We’ll see if that has any real world effects.