U.S District Court Judge, Ronald M. Whyte has ordered the permanent shutdown of Triple Fiber Network (3FN.net) after the web hosting provider was found guilty of cybercriminal operations that include: malware and child pornography as well as botnet command and control servers.

3FN.net which is operated by Pricewert LLC has also been ordered to handover $1.08 million in revenue to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In his court order, Judge Whyte is quoted as saying, “There seems to be little doubt from the information provided that Pricewert functioned primarily as an Internet service provider for illegal activity. Nevertheless, there was a relatively small number of apparently legitimate customers who used Pricewert as their service provider. This came to the court’s attention when some of those customers contacted the court after the Pricewert servers were shut down. Therefore, it seems clear that a portion of the monthly profits of $30,000 reportedly realized by Pricewert were realized from legitimate business activity.”

The FTC’s decision to push through with the closure of 3FN.net is the first of its kind and is designed to send a warning to other ISPs involved in questionable cyber practices.