A rogue internet service provider named Pricewert LLC has been shut down by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, at the behest of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), marking a much-needed onslaught on the increasing cyber-crime activities.

In its announcement about the unplugging of the San Jose, Calif.-based ISP's web connection, the FTC said on Thursday that the ISP was allegedly involved in the intentional hosting as well as distribution of harmful electronic content - including spam, malware, spyware, Trojan horses, phishing, botnet command and control servers, child pornography, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.

The FTC said that Pricewert - which was operational under different names like APS Telecom and 3FN - was promoted "in the darkest corners of the Internet" and gave cyber-criminals the required servers and bandwidth for putting malicious websites over the web.

Moreover, for safeguarding its criminal clientele, the ISP either ignored the take-down requests issued by the online security community, or else helped in circumventing their detection by shifting them to other Internet protocol addresses under its control.

With Pricewert completely off the Internet and its assets freezed, the court has issued"temporary restraining order" with regard to the prohibition of Pricewert's illegal activities, thereby also requiring its upstream Internet providers and data centers to stop providing services.