AS30186 - Squatted or not? You be the judge.

Fri Nov 11 05:25:03 UTC 2016

I kinda messed up the last time I posted something here about possible
IP address block squatting, so I'm not going to make any definitive
assertions regarding conclusion this time.  I'm just going to lay out
the facts and let all of you good folks decide for yourselves.

AS30186 is registered to Ross Technology Inc. of Austin, Texas.  Also
registered to this same entity are the following IPv4 address blocks:

143.187.0.0/16
204.8.136.0/21

Wikipedia kindly provides us with information about this (former) company:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Technology

      "Ross Technology, Inc. was a semiconductor design and manufacturing
      company, specializing in SPARC microprocessors. It was founded in
      Austin, Texas in August 1988 by Dr. Roger D. Ross,...

      ... Ross Technology closed down in 1998 and all its assets and patents
      became the property of Fujitsu Ltd."

So, it would appear that we hve a zombie company, with its very own ASN
and valuable /16 and /21 IPv4 address blocks to boot.  According to the
above history, these are all the rightful property of Fujitsu Ltd.

Fujitsu Ltd. is not a small or insignificant company, and to the best of
my knowledge it is not currently in any sort of financial straits or
difficulties.  It would thus seem somewhat implausible that Fujitsu,
a big "household name" Japanese company would elect to either sell off
or sub-lease out their ASN or either of their valuable Ross-related IPv4
address blocks to scumbag snowshoe spammers.  Despite this fact however,
abundant evidence I've collected recently indicates rather convincingly
that both AS30186 and also, at least, the 204.8.136.0/21 address block
are, at the present time, inhabited completely and only by a large scale
snowshoe spamming operation.  Current forward resilutions of numerous
interrelated snowshoe spamming domains provide clear evidence of this:

    http://pastebin.com/raw/hEY1nxct

AS30186 is announcing the following routes at the present moment:

    143.187.0.0/24
    143.187.1.0/24
    143.187.2.0/24
    143.187.3.0/24
    143.187.4.0/22
    143.187.8.0/21
    143.187.16.0/20
    143.187.32.0/19
    143.187.64.0/18
    143.187.128.0/24
    143.187.129.0/24
    143.187.130.0/24
    143.187.131.0/24
    143.187.132.0/22
    143.187.136.0/21
    143.187.144.0/20
    143.187.160.0/19
    143.187.192.0/20
    143.187.208.0/20
    143.187.224.0/20
    143.187.240.0/21
    143.187.248.0/21
    204.8.136.0/21

I have today personally made a number of diligent efforts to contact any
warm body at Fujutsu who both (a) speaks English and who also (b) knows
hat an ASN is so that I could discuss this matter with some appropriate
network administrator, but I was thwarted at every turn by Fujutsu's
bureaucracy, despite having spoken by phone to individuals who I was told
could help with this sort of thing, first in San Jose, then in Sunnyvale,
and finally in the Phillipines.

In the event that, as the evidence suggests, some party not associated
with Fujutsu is currently making use of Fujutsu's /16 and /21 blocks,
one would think that -someone- at the company might be eager to take back
possession of these valuable assets, but apparently no one is.

Data obtained by me from bgp.he.net suggests that AS30186 is currently
connectedf to the Internet only by the following other ASNs:

    AS19257 - SUBRIGO CORPORATION
    AS3491  - PCCW Global

I have already attempted to make contact via email with both of these
companies regarding AS30186, but am still awating any reply from either.
So far it is not looking good.

In the meantime, I do encourage everyone to look over the content of the
pastebin report whose URL is given above, and I encourage everyone to make
up his or her own mind regarding the advisability of accepting traffic
at the present time from any IPv4 space routed by AS30186.

Regards,
rfg

P.S.  The domains associated with the former Ross Technology, Inc. ASN
and IPv4 address blocks appear to be part of a larger pattern upon which
I will elaborate further in the near future.