Evaluating Hosting Provider Security Through Abuse Data and the Creation of Metrics

Abstract

Hosting providers are theoretically in a key position to combat cybercrime as they are often the entities renting out the resources that end up being abused by miscreants. Yet, notwithstanding hosting providers' current security measures to combat abuse, their responses vary widely. In many cases the response is ineffective, as empirical evidence suggests. To incentivize hosting providers to more effectively combat cybercrime and abuse however, we first require tools by which we can tell more or less secure hosting providers apart. These, may then be used to guide technical and policy questions surrounding the security of online hosting, and to provide empirical grounding to discussions about which potential solutions may move the hosting market towards more desirable security outcomes. Therefore, this book explores ways by which the security of hosting providers, may be measured through empirical data on cybercrime and the creation of metrics. The book explores questions of how such metrics may be constructed, to what extent they may be useful, and what the wider consequences of provider security negligence may be.