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Is it just me, or are the majority of raids of malware/botnet hosters typically in the EU? I mean just 6 days ago a raid was cunducted on a old NATO bunker in G

Is it just me, or are the majority of raids of malware/botnet hosters typically in the EU? I mean just 6 days ago a raid was cunducted on a old NATO bunker in Germany. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21090549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21090549 Is it that it's easier to become a hosting provider there with more protections (rights) and/or does America/NA lack the legal authority/process to conduct as many raids. Obviously eastern Eurupe/Russia is the wild west but I'm just suprised how much comes out of western Europe.

zelon88 7y ago
I'm curious why Eastern Europe/Russia are the wild west of douchey internet behavior. I mean there are seemingly endless bulletproof hosting providers. Who wakes up in the morning with the ultimate goal of being slimy on purpose like that? And why are there so many of them concentrated in Russia/Eastern Europe?
- jungturk 7y ago
  I'd assume that the ultimate goal that motivates most of them is to make money to improve other parts of their lives. That often boils down to reaping the gains and externalizing the costs, which these hosting solutions seem to do fairly well for their owners (though perhaps not for the operators that get caught up in the eventual stings).
- swalls 7y ago
  As far as I know, it's at least partially because Russia doesn't extradite citizens and doesn't respond to other countries requesting they investigate.
- opportune 7y ago
  If you think about it from the host countries’ perspective, stealing money from foreigners or nefariously affecting them doesn’t harm the hosts much but can bring in a lot of money to their economies.
- ryanlol 7y ago
  >And why are there so many of them concentrated in Russia/Eastern Europe? They aren’t, the vast majority of them are in the Netherlands. Why NL? Cheap and just the traditional destination.
- Havoc 7y ago
  It's a competitive advantage vs legit hosting companies that can be leveraged for profit. Simple as that. If it pays well someone will do it, slimy or not.
- ChuckMcM 7y ago
  In talking with a guy that was trying to sell me data center space in a Ukranian data center, his pitch was that that as long as your activities targeted "western" countries you could host activities that more local data centers might disallow in their TOS. He pointed out that they turned off the local DNS function when ever someone was in the building who wasn't a customer. I found that somewhat strange at first and then realized that it was essentially a "bell ringer" protocol for people who might want to wipe their servers in the event of people being there that didn't belong. All in all, a very different way of operating.
ryanlol 7y ago
Bandwidth tends to be cheaper in EU. This has nothing to do with legal protections and everything to do with operating costs. >Obviously eastern Eurupe/Russia is the wild west What? Maybe if you’re talking about the users, but definitely not true for hosts. And I definitely wouldn’t call any of the eastern EU states the “wild west”.

zelon88 7y ago

I'm curious why Eastern Europe/Russia are the wild west of douchey internet behavior. I mean there are seemingly endless bulletproof hosting providers. Who wakes up in the morning with the ultimate goal of being slimy on purpose like that? And why are there so many of them concentrated in Russia/Eastern Europe?

jungturk 7y ago
I'd assume that the ultimate goal that motivates most of them is to make money to improve other parts of their lives. That often boils down to reaping the gains and externalizing the costs, which these hosting solutions seem to do fairly well for their owners (though perhaps not for the operators that get caught up in the eventual stings).
swalls 7y ago
As far as I know, it's at least partially because Russia doesn't extradite citizens and doesn't respond to other countries requesting they investigate.
opportune 7y ago
If you think about it from the host countries’ perspective, stealing money from foreigners or nefariously affecting them doesn’t harm the hosts much but can bring in a lot of money to their economies.
ryanlol 7y ago
>And why are there so many of them concentrated in Russia/Eastern Europe? They aren’t, the vast majority of them are in the Netherlands. Why NL? Cheap and just the traditional destination.
Havoc 7y ago
It's a competitive advantage vs legit hosting companies that can be leveraged for profit. Simple as that. If it pays well someone will do it, slimy or not.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
In talking with a guy that was trying to sell me data center space in a Ukranian data center, his pitch was that that as long as your activities targeted "western" countries you could host activities that more local data centers might disallow in their TOS. He pointed out that they turned off the local DNS function when ever someone was in the building who wasn't a customer. I found that somewhat strange at first and then realized that it was essentially a "bell ringer" protocol for people who might want to wipe their servers in the event of people being there that didn't belong. All in all, a very different way of operating.

ryanlol 7y ago

Bandwidth tends to be cheaper in EU. This has nothing to do with legal protections and everything to do with operating costs. >Obviously eastern Eurupe/Russia is the wild west What? Maybe if you’re talking about the users, but definitely not true for hosts. And I definitely wouldn’t call any of the eastern EU states the “wild west”.