2014-02-03
Abstract
Indian government minister has a history of spamming, according to researcher.
Copyright © 2014 Virus Bulletin
Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti has found himself in a tight corner as revelations connecting him with a spamming outfit in the early 2000s have come to light. Security analyst Conrad Longmore, who writes on Dynamoo’s Blog, says he first came across Bharti more than a decade ago when investigating a spamming operation known as TopSites LLC. Somnath Bharti and his company, Magden Solutions, was a partner of TopSites, and Bharti even found his way onto Spamhaus’s ROKSO list of known professional spammers.
It seems that at some point after Longmore’s original investigations, Bharti took a change in career path and became a lawyer – some time after which he developed an interest in politics, eventually becoming Delhi’s law minister.
At the time of his involvement with the spamming operations, the act of spamming was not illegal in India (indeed the country still does not have effective anti-spam legislation), but Bharti was named in a lawsuit filed in California in 2004 against a number of alleged spammers (the suit was settled out of court).
Bharti strongly denies his involvement with the spamming outfit, claiming that the allegations are part of a conspiracy to malign him – but there are several pieces of evidence that indicate that he is evading the truth. Longmore points to Bharti having been listed as CEO of TopSites, his name having appeared in the WHOIS records for the original domain used in the spam (topsites.us), and his name having appeared in the internal databases of clone sites.
Unsurprisingly, the story has found its way into India’s mainstream news and media – and it seems that Bharti already has a rather shaky reputation, a Times Now reporter describing the minister as ‘erring and blundering’ and saying ‘his cup of controversies brimmeth over’. While the lack of effective anti-spam legislation in India means that Bharti is unlikely to face legal action, the minister seems likely to be in for a bumpy ride in his political career.
