A day after U.S. Marshals raided an internet business in Scranton, its owners are speaking out.
They said they aren’t the target of a federal investigation, but their customers are.
BurstNET is an internet business in Scranton that more or less sells space on the World Wide Web to anybody looking to run a website.
Employees at BurstNET said FBI agents frequently look in to some of their customers, but this time is different because internet big-wig Microsoft is involved.
The sea of internet servers at BurstNET became the center of a federal lawsuit filed by Microsoft to crack down on hackers who use the internet to steal people’s personal information.
Microsoft posted a video of Monday’s raid on YouTube. The video shows computer experts, escorted by U.S. Marshals, searching through BurstNET’s servers.
BurstNET employees said although the video makes it appear that BurstNET is a target, it’s not.
BurstNET acts as kind of an internet landlord, selling space to other companies acting as tenants. Some of those tenants turn around and sell the space again. BurstNET said it’s those customers of customers that are listed as defendants in the lawsuit filed by Microsoft.
Employees at BurstNET went about their usual business the day after the raid, not expecting to be sued themselves.
Many details of the lawsuit are still sealed. But, BurstNET said 39 hackers who were using their servers are being sued.
Officials from Microsoft could not be reached for comment.
