Report calls out Atrivo (Intercage) and affiliates

Jart Armin, StopBadware.org community volunteer and intrepid security researcher, released a report today that concludes that Intercage and Atrivo, a California-based family of companies that operate web hosting, domain registration, and other online services, are a hub of badware activity:

Atrivo is a major hub of cyber crime based within the USA, and has been known as such within the Internet
community for many years. Within this study we provide detailed evidence not only for public and community
awareness but also to provide evidence for action.

...

Atrivo’s reach in the cyber crime community and the Internet as a whole runs deep. From their partners in crime, to
the domain registration and hosting services it has to be remembered this is deliberately misleading to avoid
detection.

Some of the companies included in the report have built a reputation in the security community as being havens for this type of activity, and Jart’s extensive research raises questions about the degree to which these companies are aware of, and turn a blind eye to, badware activity on their systems.

The author and his collaborators also produced a video demonstrating how an Internet user can have his computer exploited via the systems and methods they describe in the report.

Note: StopBadware.org contributed data (based on our analysis of data received from Google and supplemented with information from Team Cymru) to Mr. Armin, as we support community-based research into badware trends. We did not vet, and do not have any official position on, the report’s conclusions.