Researchers Probe Dark and Murky Net

umm qasr writes: "Security Focus has an interesting article on blocks of internet space that are hidden from most users, it is based on a survey by Arbor Networks. The most common 'invisible sites' being .mil, which seems is unintentional. The survey suggests others, which seem more sinister...using unused netblock addresses to send spam. It's a bit short on the details but interesting none the less."

Comments

Routes withdrawn after spamming?

[cperciva]

While the proposed explanation is quite possible, there is a simpler explanation: The spammer's upstream ISP disconnected them. Cut them off, and their advertised BGP routes will automatically lapse -- resulting in the rest of the internet simply seeing a spam source followed by a withdrawn BGP route.

Re:.info and other new TLDs in the dark, too?

[armb]

> > only 0-9, a-z, dots, and it should end by two characters or com/net/org/edu
> No, you cannot enforce this. How about non-English character domain name?

What part of "new conventions like non-ascii characters" don't you understand?