An update on Directi

Last week I wrote about some research from Knujon, HostExploit, and others about cyber-scammers and their relationship to registrars. The Directi Group was by no means the only name to come up, but it was the only one to deny the charges. They attempted to suppress the free press when they did deny the charges (we all got nasty-grams), but of course that backfired.

An update posted yesterday on Knujon’s site clarifies the situation. My summary follows.

Directi of Mumbai, India does own LogicBoxes, PDR, PrivacyProtect, and a bunch of other Internet-related companies. And yes, Directi’s name came up in association with a lot of spam-advertised sites, including many illegal pharmacy sites, and including many sites owned by Atrivo and EstDomains. These were hosted on domains registered with or hosted by Directi companies; some of them were hidden by PrivacyProtect, which is a free service offered by Directi registrars.

But no, Directi wasn’t deliberately helping these scammers, and doesn’t own Atrivo or EstDomains. Now that these sleazy sites have been pointed out more forcefully, the appropriate Directi companies are shutting down their domains, turning off their hosting, and/or cutting off their privacy protection. As of Sunday, Directi says it shares a common goal with HostExploit and Knujon of “continuing to combat spam and abuse on the Internet through cooperation, collaboration and proactive action.”

What about those 48 phantom registrars? They are companies registered in Delaware, and hidden by what is actually a mail drop in Beaverton. That isn’t the way most legitimate U.S. companies operate, but apparently it isn’t illegal and isn’t against ICANN’s rules.

I’d still like to see more transparency, both from Directi and from ICANN. It shouldn’t take a massive effort to bring information about Internet registrars and hosting providers into the open: that should all be a matter of public record.