Controversial 'cybercrime ISP' Intercage now back online

IDG News Service - Pressure from computer security researchers may have knocked Intercage Inc. offline, but not for long.

The San Francisco-based Internet service provider has been accused of being a haven to online criminals. Intercage now back, just days after its latest upstream network provider, Pacific Internet Exchange LLC, dropped it as a customer.

Pacific had been Intercage's point of contact with the Internet's backbone, but it had dropped Intercage's service late Saturday night, knocking the controversial Internet service provider offline.

On Tuesday, however, Intercage was live again, this time with upstream service provided by UnitedLayer LLC, a company that operates out of the same San Francisco collocation facility as Intercage and Pacific Internet Exchange.

"I knew it was a mater of time before they went online, but I didn't think it would be so quick," said Matt Jonkman, an Intercage critic who contributed to a white paper (download PDF) documenting criminal activity on the Intercage network. Jonkman, an independent security researcher, figured that Intercage would be forced out of the U.S. because of its reputation for permitting spammers and online criminals to use its network with impunity.

The white paper, published last month, characterized Intercage as a "major hub of cybercrime" and described 78% of the domains operating on its network as "hostile."

In recent weeks, other upstream providers, including Pacific Internet Exchange, have terminated Intercage's service, but the deal with UnitedLayer gives Intercage a last, tenuous link to the Internet.

Intercage President Emil Kacperski did not return messages seeking comment. But he has said previously that his company has been working harder at removing bad operators from its network and being more responsive to complaints.