[Community-Discuss] SEACOM & Ernest

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

I am pleased to report to you all that according to the data currently
being provided at the web site bgp.he.net, SEACOM is no longer providing
connectivity sevices to the bogon AS number, AS26754, which is most
probably being used by the thief, Ernest Byaruhanga.

https://bgp.he.net/AS26754#_asinfo

Unfortunately, as can be seen on the page above, that is not the end of
the story.  The bogon AS number, AS26754 is still being provided with
connectivity by AS328616, also known as "Spidd Africa Ltd", and that
ASN is itself still being provided transit services by SEACOM:

https://bgp.he.net/AS328616#_asinfo

I have looked at the web site of this somewhat mysterious Ugandan company:

https://spiddafrica.com/

The company appears to want to claim that it is good at "cybersecurity"
and yet it apparently doesn't even know enough to stop itself from
providing services to bogon ASNs.

More troubling, the entire company just seems to be some sort of a false
front.  Clicking on the "About Us" link on the company's home page
brings up this page, which is filled with only classic boilerplate
"Lorem ipsum" type text:

https://spiddafrica.com/about-spiddafrica

Apparently the company does not wish the world to know anything about
it, including who the officers and/or beneficial owners are.

(Many of the other clickable links at the bottom of the company's home
page are also dysfunctional.)

Remarkably, despite the company's inability or unwillingness to reveal
anything at all about itself to the outside world, via its web site,
the Dun & Bradstreet company in the U.S. estimates that the company is
earning around $2.41 million dollars (USD) per year:

https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.spidd_africa_limited.5ad26d64814c330260454b4821e4ac86.html

One wonders how much of those earnings are coming from providing ongoing
connectivity and transit services to Ernest.

Although it is not entirely clear who really owns Spidd Africa Ltd, the
following page suggests two names, i.e. "Gensi Michael John" and
"Augustus Muncha Katende".

https://www.ppdaproviders.ug/index.php?page=yprov&sl=4&tgt=5&aph=S&sn=all%20providers&sp=all%20sectors&st=&tp=v&id=3161

It is my hope that Noah, or at any rate, -someone- from SEACOM will reach
out to this company, and to those two gentlemen... all of which, together,
are evidently a SEACOM customer... and make appropriate inquiries so as
to determine why the company is still providing connectivity to Ernest's
(now bogon) ASN which is itself still announcing routes to Ernest's
(now bogon) stolen IPv4 address blocks.

https://bgp.he.net/AS26754#_prefixes

I would like to also once again express my hope that SEACOM will provide
any and all payment information relating to the services they have been
providing to Ernest's AS26754 to both the Mauritius police and to Eddy
and the Board so that they may attempt to recoup at least some of the
financial proceeds that were obtained, by Ernest, as a result of his
years-long embezzlement scheme.

Of course, I also hope that -someone- will persuade the owners of
AS328616, "Spidd Africa Ltd", to immediately cease provding connectivity
to Ernest and his bogons.  (Maybe some official of AFRINIC might also have
a polite word with them about that, in addition to SEACOM, of course.)


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  I don not have a Facebook account, so I personally cannot do this,
but any interested party who does have a Facebook account could probably
contact this company via Facebook to ask them why they are helping Ernest
to stay online.  The company does seem to have an active Facebook account,
which even now is showing a Christmas greeting:

https://www.facebook.com/SPIDDAFRICA/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/SPIDDAFRICA/about/