Cloud Company Helped 17 Gov't Hacking Groups

A small cloud service firm has been giving state-sponsored hackers internet services to spy on and extort their victims, a cybersecurity firm said in a report to be published, Raphael Satter and Christopher Bing reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Researchers claimed Cloudzy is a front for another internet hosting firm called abrNOC, which Nozari reportedly runs from Tehran.

Researchers at Texas-based Halcyon said a company called Cloudzy had been leasing server space and reselling it to no fewer than 17 different state-sponsored hacking groups from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Cloudzy CEO Hannan Nozari disputed Halcyon’s assessment, saying that his firm couldn’t be held responsible for its clients, of which he estimated only 2% were malicious.

Halcyon estimated that roughly half of Cloudzy’s business was malicious, including renting services to two ransomware groups.

“It's a rogues’ gallery on that through one provider,” said Halcyon executive Ryan Golden ahead of the report’s publication. Halcyon arrived at its conclusion by mapping out Cloudzy’s digital footprint, in part by renting servers directly from the firm and by tying it to known hacking operations.

Researchers claimed Cloudzy is a front for another internet hosting firm called abrNOC, which Nozari reportedly runs from Tehran.

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