Bullet Proof Web Hosting

1. Experience in the Web Hosting Industry.
2. Server Infrastructure
3. Such a host must and must have already hosted a lot many Bullet Proof Web Sites.
4. Above all Reliable and Economical.

Bulletproof (BP) hosting is an increasingly important and under-researched component of cyber-criminal activities. While there are several different ways that BP hosting can be accomplished, it is generally understood as a service that promises customers that their websites will not be taken down, regardless of complaints or content.

This is particularly appealing to criminals who, facing rising scrutiny from law enforcement and private researchers, are forced to rely on ever more sophisticated methods to carry out their illicit enterprises.

While efforts to identify and shut down BPHs is important, little attention has been given to understanding precisely how they operate in the dynamic environment of cyber-criminal activity. This paper provides a preliminary survey of the landscape of BP hosting.

Several opportunities in the BP hosting operational environment will likely facilitate the growth and expansion of the service. These opportunities include: (1) high demand for services; (2) states with lax or non-existence laws pertaining to cyber-criminal activity; and (3) a lack of international consensus regarding how to combat cyber-crime.

Spammers, hackers, and other fraudsters utilizing the Internet to perpetrate criminal activity will continue to demand the services of hosts who can guarantee domain survivability and client anonymity.

This continued demand will likely result in an increase in the number of BPHs and advances in methods of service delivery. In fact, shutting down a BPH can often have the adverse impact of increasing demand for these services by decreasing the overall supply.

The profitability and sustainability of the BP hosting infrastructure faces several key threats: (1) increased focus from law enforcement and Internet security researchers; (2) increased citizen awareness of Internet security; and (3) increased sophistication of analytical tools.

In recent years, the prevalence and severity of cyber-crime has attracted heightened scrutiny from governments, law enforcement personnel, and Internet security researchers.

Continued intelligence gathering on cyber-crime trends and tactics is likely to inflate the operational costs and necessary technical sophistication for providing BP hosting.

As more attention is focused upon dismantling the cyber-criminal infrastructure, BPHs’ survivability will become even more dependent upon rapid adaptability and the utilization of back-channel communication and payment processing services. BPHs that are unable to outmaneuver law enforcement in this increasingly dangerous environment will likely fall by the wayside.

The BP hosting landscape is characterized by four key strengths: (1) geographically dispersed servers; (2) low operational costs; (3) adaptability; and (4) obfuscation of true operators.

The BP hosting infrastructure is dependent upon a network of geographically dispersed servers that are typically located in states where lax legal codes will not threaten the hosts’ operations. The ability to operate in regions unaffected by the restraints of Western laws allows BPHs to significantly reduce risk exposure in order to increase customer security and profitability.

Moreover, BP hosting is believed to be low-cost, with few employees and low overhead. There are, however, significant legal risks associated with the provision and sale of BP hosting services. These risks are often reflected in the exorbitant fees paid by consumers to house their content on BPHs’ servers.

BPHs are constrained by several key internal weaknesses: (1) limited communication infrastructure, particularly in terms of advertising; (2) absence of legal recourse; (3) limited customer base; and (4) convoluted payment structures.

The illegal nature of BP hosting activities severely limits the extent to which such hosts can advertise their services. In order to limit risk exposure for themselves and their clients, BPHs must carefully select advertising venues that provide low-exposure to law enforcement and high-exposure to their customer base—namely, criminal actors.

Consequently, BPHs are typically limited to advertising within underground, crime-based forums. Although these forums generally provide direct access to their desired customers, they are highly susceptible to penetration by law enforcement and Internet security researchers.

Also, because many activities that BPHs participate in are criminal, they have little, if any, legal recourse to remedy instances of wrongdoing against their operations. This limitation makes BPHs highly susceptible to acts of sabotage and extortion perpetrated by competitors or other profit-motivated criminals.