ISPs Customers Should Avoid Doing Business With

From the ZD Net Zero Day blog:

"... the researchers at FireEye have recently launched a “Bad Actors series” aiming to put the spotlight on some of the currently active badware actors online. The sampled ISPs represent safe heavens for drop zones for banker malware, DNSChanger malware, rogue security software and live exploit URLs. From Starline Web Services, to ZlKon, Internet Path/Cernel, HostFresh and UralNet, the series draw a simple conclusion - that a dysfunctional abuse departments can indeed act as driving factor for the growth of cybercrime... Moreover, we cannot talk about cybercrime-friendly ISPs without mentioning the domain registrars of choice for the majority of cybercriminals, which KnujOn keeps profiling. Their February, 2009 Registrar Report states that 10 registrats are responsible for 83% of the fraudulent sites that they’ve analyzed, with the Chinese registrar XIN NET topping the chart for a second time."

Part of being an informed and smart consumer is to avoid doing business with ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that have poor data security -- by allowing malware, facilitating scammers, and/or by performing targeted advertising programs without informing their customers.