The cesspool of the internet is to be found in a village in North Holland

Abstraction: Dutch bulletproof hoster Ecatel enabling cybercrime for two decades

Key points:

• Ecatel (later Novogara, IP Volume) operated from Wormer, Netherlands by "Bap K." and "Reinier van E."; hosted spam, malware, botnets, child pornography, and illegal streaming for 20+ years
• Business model: "know nothing, respond to no one, be obstructive"; clients paid in bitcoin and were shielded from DMCA takedowns and abuse notifications
• Dutch law protects hosting companies from prosecution for hosted content, creating legal cover for willful inaction; notice-and-takedown code of conduct is voluntary
• Europol and researchers linked IP Volume to theft of 2.4 million African IP addresses, resold to malicious actors needing fresh unblocked addresses
• FIOD (Dutch fiscal authority) raided in September 2020—"Al Capone" strategy—seizing €70,000 cash, hundreds of thousands in bitcoin, five cars, and two tasers
• Repeated frustration by police, Europol, and international cybercrime researchers due to jurisdictional complexity, shell companies in the Seychelles, and political inaction

Connections: Ecatel · Bulletproof Hosting · Cybercrime · Internet Governance

Source: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/04/02/the-cesspool-of-the-internet-is-to-be-found-in-a-village-in-north-holland-a4038369