Who is emaildirect.com and CIHost?

[jdow]

I was recently on the receiving end of an ssh attack (which had less
chance of success than a nitrocellulose cat in a traditional hell of
succeeding) from CIHost. And now I received a spate of low scoring DKIM
identified spams from emaildirect.com, which is hosted in CIHost's
address range.

O1.com NETBLK-O1-BLK4 (NET-65-98-128-0-1)
                                 65.98.128.0 - 65.98.255.255
EmailDirect, Inc. NETBLK-65-98-146-0 (NET-65-98-146-0-1)
                                 65.98.146.0 - 65.98.146.255


Were they legitimate at one time?

{^_^}