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Cogent Picks 365 Main for Hosting

Data center operator 365 Main (365main.com) announced on Tuesday that it would provide hosting, colocation and management for Internet service provider Cogent Communications (cogentco.com) out of its Bay Area facility.

"Cogent is now added to our list of over twelve providers that sell services to our customers," says Chris Dolan, president of 365 Main. "Adding Cogent to our list of providers has enabled customers to purchase cost effective bandwidth. Customers today in many cases are shopping for the best value. 365 Main is recognized as one of the few financially sound data centers of its kind in the industry, while placing additional focus on customer service and value added offerings that most critical facilities are currently without."

Cogent, based in Washington DC, is a provider of low-cost bandwidth to Web hosting and other service providers. The company has a presence in over 85 markets throughout the US and Europe.

"365 Main has all the critical support systems we need including security, redundant power, and most importantly, a large customer base with which to cross-connect," says Dave Schaeffer, CEO of Cogent. "By utilizing 365Main’s presence in Bay Area, we can now extend our footprint and reach customers that previously could not directly connect to Cogent."

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EarthLink Launches new Spam Lawsuits

Internet service provider EarthLink (earthlink.com) announced on Thursday that it had filed four lawsuits in its continuing battle against spam emails. The lawsuits identify defendants in California, Florida, Nevada and Washington state, as well as John Doe defendants.

"EarthLink is committed to protecting the Internet," says Larry Slovensky, assistant general counsel for EarthLink. "We will continue to pursue litigation, technical solutions, consumer education and legislative support to help ensure the quality of the Internet experience for all users."

In the Earthlink litigation, which was filed in US District Court in Atlanta last month, the defendants in all four lawsuits are allegedly in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and other state and federal statutes, including the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Georgia Computer Systems Protection Act and state and federal racketeering laws, and many others.

A few CAN-SPAM violations alleged in the lawsuit include falsifying "from" email addresses, failing to include a physical address in the email, deceptive subject lines and false and misleading header information. As in earlier lawsuits, EarthLink is requesting injunctive relief to prevent the defendants from illegally spamming any Internet user, as well as unspecified damages.

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Vigilante Group Attacks Cyber-criminals

According to reports, an Internet vigilante group known as the 419 Flash Mob, launched a two-day bandwidth attack last Wednesday against spammers attempting to defraud people by providing hosting services for fake bank sites.

The criminals, reports say, run the "419 scam," which sends out emails, faxes and letters, asking individuals for help in recovering money from banks in exchange for a percentage. These criminals have reportedly graduated to hosting fake bank sites, hoping to lure victims to deposit money in their illegitimate accounts.

The 419 Flash Mob reportedly launched a distributed denial of service attack against the spammers' bandwidth and have reported them to their Web host and other legal authorities.

Reports said the sites attacked had the names Abbey Trust & Offshore Bank, First Global Trust, Crystal Bonds & Securities, Allied Trust Bank UK, KASH BANK CORPORATION and Liberty Stronghold Securities and Finance.

The 419 Flash Mob is supported by Artists Against 419 (aa419.org).

February 2005 - Top 25 Web Host Awards

Each month HostIndex.com searches out the best web hosting companies that are listed in our directory! Our criteria includes feedback from our users, website navigation, features and pricing, financial stability, along with customer support. The host with the highest number of votes is not necessarily the top host. Instead HostIndex.com takes the time to examine each hosting company to obtain a more rounded picture.

Of the thousands of hosting companies worldwide, the companies listed at the HostIndex.com Top 25 represent the TOP 1% of HOSTING COMPANIES from around the world! A mere 25 companies out of the 8,000 web hosts in our directory make the cut. These web hosts have demonstrated considerable leadership and superior delivery of their hosting services. We recommend you include them in your consideration set of potential web hosts for your online presence.

Note: This ranking was prepared as of February 1st, 2005 and is updated on a monthly basis. The next Top 25 ranking will be released on March 1st, 2005. Any user feedback received about a web hosting company between February1st and February 28th will be reflected as of our March rankings.

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Verizon Communications Acquires MCI

Verizon Communications (verizon.com) announced on Monday that it has acquired MCI (mci.com) for $4.8 billion in equity and $488 million in cash, confirming reports that emerged late last Friday.

MCI will also pay a special dividend, Verizon said, bringing the value of the deal to $6.7 billion. Verizon will assume MCI's debt, estimated at $4 billion.

Verizon said the acquisition enhances its ability to serve large business and government customers with a complete range of services, and ensures that MCI's Internet backbone network will have the financial strength to be maintained and improved.

The acquisition comes just a few weeks after SBC acquired AT&T. Like AT&T, MCI is an attractive asset because of its extensive national infrastructure and strong corporate customer base.

MCI also has strong Web hosting capabilities, bolstered by a strong enterprise hosting base built through its acquisition of Digex. According to research and analysis firm Netcraft (netcraft.com), MCI is the world's ninth largest host, home to 878,000 hostnames. MCI's customer base, Netcraft says, has been growing at a rapid pace, adding 233,000 hostnames in the last year, with 61,000 coming in the last two months alone. MCI's high-profile hosting clients include The Weather Channel and Bloomberg.

Verizon has an extremely small Web hosting presence with just 10,000 hostnames, according to Netcraft.

The Verizon and MCI boards have approved the agreement and both companies expect to attain regulatory approval within the year.

Just last year MCI emerged from the largest bankruptcy in corporate history amid a massive accounting scandal. Former CEO Bernie Ebbers is currently facing fraud charges.

Anti-Spyware Activist Web Site Attacked

According to a report by research and analysis firm Netcraft (netcraft.com), the Web site of anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman (benedelman.org) suffered an extended period of downtime earlier this week due to a distributed denial of service attack.

Edelman said on his Web site, which is back online, that the site was down for much of Monday and Tuesday, as well as several hours last week. According to Edelman, his host Globat (globat.com) informed him that the site was the victim of a large-scale DDoS attack, the like of which the company had never seen, bringing traffic of more than 600MB per second.

In a posting Edelman said his site was brought back online with the help of the Internet Software Consortium (isc.org), which now provides Web hosting for benedelman.org.

Edelman's Web site documents the methods used to install adware and spyware programs. The information has reportedly been used in legal cases against adware and spyware advertisers.