The story
McColo was formed by a 19-year-old Russian hacker and student named Nikolai. Nikolai's nickname was "Kolya McColo"; hence the name of the provider.
From Wikipedia’s article on McColo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
Private company
McColo
Defunct web hosting provider used for cybercrime
McColo was a US-based web hosting service provider that was, for a long time, the source of the majority of spam-sending activities for the entire world. In late 2008, the company was shut down by two upstream providers, Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric, because a significant amount of malware and botnets had been trafficking from the McColo servers.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
Overview
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McColo was a US-based web hosting service provider that was, for a long time, the source of the majority of spam-sending activities for the entire world. In late 2008, the company was shut down by two upstream providers, Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric, because a significant amount of malware and botnets had been trafficking from the McColo servers.2
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataMcColo on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaMcColo on Wikipedia
- 3WikipediaMcColo on Wikipedia (revision used)