EstDomains was a website hosting provider and a

Delaware corporation The Delaware General Corporation Law (sometimes abbreviated DGCL), officially the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code), is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U. ...

headquartered in downtown

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. EstDomains was known for hosting websites with

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

child pornography Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law)), is Eroticism, erotic ma ...

, and other illegal content.

Brian Krebs Brian Krebs (born 1972) is an American journalist and investigative reporter. He is best known for his coverage of profit-seeking cybercriminals.Perlroth, Nicole.Reporting From the Web's Underbelly. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 2 ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' stated that EstDomains "appeared to be the registrar of choice for the infamous

Russian Business Network The Russian Business Network (commonly abbreviated as RBN) is a multi-faceted cybercrime organization, specializing in and in some cases monopolizing personal identity theft for resale. It is the originator of the PHP-based malware kit MPack and ...

." EstDomains was one of the largest domain registrars in the world. By 2007 EstDomains gained a reputation for hosting illegal content. The CEO, Vladimir Tšaštšin (also known as "SCR"), received a prison sentence for

credit card fraud Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The P ...

, document forgery, and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

. His conviction occurred on 6 February 2008. On 28 October 2008, the

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

(ICANN) announced that it would revoke the accreditation of EstDomains because of the CEO's convictions; the revocation would occur on 12 November 2008. On 29 October ICANN said it would delay shutting down EstDomains, pending a review. EstDomains said that Tšaštšin had resigned in June of that year and that his conviction is on appeal, while EstDomains had not notified ICANN of the change. On 12 November 2008 ICANN announced that EstDomains would be shut down on 24 November 2008. According to ICANN, when the accreditation was terminated, EstDomains had 281,000 domain names. On Tuesday 25 November 2008 web host ResellerClub announced that it is taking over EstDomains's business. Iain Thompson of ''Australian PC Authority'' ranked Tšaštšin as the tenth-worst technology business chief executive.

Arrest

On November 9, 2011, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

announced the arrest of Tšaštšin and his business partners Timur Gerassimenko, Dmitri Jegorov, Valeri Aleksejev, Konstantin Poltev and Anton Ivanov in '' Operation Ghost Click''. At the time, the seventh defendant, Andrey Taame, remained at large.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Estdomains
(Archive) Web hosting Defunct companies of Estonia Tartu Crime in Estonia 2008 disestablishments in Estonia Endurance International Group Telecommunications companies of Estonia

Arrest

See also

References

External links