Security News > 2021 > April > The Big Pentagon Internet Mystery Now Partially Solved
A shadowy company residing at a shared workspace above a Florida bank announced to the world's computer networks that it was now managing a colossal, previously idle chunk of the internet owned by the U.S. Department of Defense.
It's also more than twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon.
The Pentagon periodically contends with unauthorized squatting on its space, in part because there has been a shortage of first-generation internet addresses since 2011; they now sell at auction for upwards of $25 each.
It is identical to that of a firm that independent internet fraud researcher Ron Guilmette says was sending out email spam using the very same internet routing identifier.
Mike Leber, who owns Hurricane Electric, the internet backbone company handing the address blocks' traffic, didn't return emails or phone messages.
Despite an internet address crunch, the Pentagon - which created the internet - has shown no interest in selling any of its address space, and a Defense Department spokesman, Russell Goemaere, told the AP on Saturday that none of the newly announced space has been sold.