WEST PALM BEACH, FL - In a significant shift for the internet's infrastructure, the decades-old Whois system is being phased out, making way for its modern successor: the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP). This transition marks the end of an era for one of the internet's most recognizable tools and ushers in a new chapter in how domain registration data is accessed and managed. For years, Whois has been the go-to resource for querying domain name registration … [Read more...]
Global Domain Registrations Reach 364.3 Million in Q4 2024, Despite .Com Decline
RESTON, VA - According to the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report from DNIB.com, the fourth quarter of 2024 concluded with 364.3 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs). This represents an increase of 2.0 million registrations, or 0.5%, compared to the third quarter of 2024, and a year-over-year growth of 4.4 million registrations, or 1.2%. The combined total of .com and .net TLDs reached 169.0 million domain name … [Read more...]
FBI Seizes Internet Domains Associated with Major Cybercrime Ring; 17M Victims
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A multi-jurisdictional operation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several other law enforcement agencies has resulted in several well-known internet domains being seized that were a part of a major cybercrime ring responsible for hacking and stealing credentials from digital marketplaces. As of Wednesday, the Cracked.io and Nulled.to internet forums – long known as havens for threat actors who engaged in password theft, software … [Read more...]
Identity Digital Takes Over Management, Marketing of .AI Domains for Government
BELLEVUE, WA. - Domain name registrar and registry services provider Identity Digital officially took over the management and marketing last week of the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .AI for the Government of Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean whose ccTLD has gained considerable popularity in recent years with members of the artificial intelligence community. For years the small island country has been reaping a profit from the rising … [Read more...]
Shopify Snaps Up Pair of Country Code Top Level Domains for Over $500,000
OTTAWA, CA - Shopify Inc., Canada's leading technology company, has acquired the domain names Shop.ca and Shop.us from Toronto-based EMERGE Commerce Ltd. for approximately $500,000. These domains now redirect to Shopify's Shop App website, a marketplace designed as a "digital shopping assistant" that allows users to search for products and brands, make purchases, and track shipments. The original Shop.ca launched in 2011, positioning itself as "Canada’s largest online … [Read more...]
Expired Domains Used by Security Experts to Neutralize Abandoned Web Backdoors
BATH, UK - More than 4,000 web backdoors that had been abandoned but were still active with live malware were hijacked and their communication infrastructure sinkholed – a term used to describe the process of redirecting malicious traffic to a DNS sinkhole – after web security researchers registered numerous expired domains, preventing them from being used by hackers and cybercriminals. A backdoor is a covert method of bypassing normal authentication or encryption in a … [Read more...]
Annual Number of Domain Name Registrations Remains Flat at End of 2024
LOS ANGELES, CA - According to end-of-the-year roundups, the number of domain name registrations that took place during the course of 2024 remained essentially flat when compared to the year prior, indicating that growth within the industry has stagnated to a degree following the increased demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 362.3 million domain names registered at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 according to the most recent Domain Name … [Read more...]
Hackers Utilizing Russian Domains for Rising Number of Complex Phishing Attacks
REDMOND, WA - Cybersecurity experts have noted a large increase in the number of phishing attacks recently as hackers have been altering their attack avenues in order to work their way around increasingly complex email security systems designed to circumvent their efforts. Both the volume and complexity of malicious emails have been on the rise and are proving to be increasingly able to bypass Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) such as Microsoft and Proofpoint, according … [Read more...]
Namecheap Publishes Results Naming Highest TLD, Domain Registrations for 2024
PHOENIX, AZ - One of the most well-known domain registrars in the world, Namecheap, has released the results of a study outlining the highest number of domains registered through its service in the Top-Level Domain (TLD) as well as National Domain categories for the year 2024. Namecheap’s report notes that the most popular TLD registered with the company in 2024, unsurprisingly, was .COM, which took a commanding lead with 3,661,899 registrations. The number two slot ended … [Read more...]
Scammers & Cybercriminals Using Cheap New Domains To Host Fake Websites
BOSTON, MA - A new report is pointing to new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) launched within the past few years, such as .Top, and .Shop as contributing to an increase in use by scammers and cybercriminals due to the fact that – given their relatively new status on the market – they are cheaper to register compared to more established domains. According to Interisle Consulting Group’s newly-published Cybercrime Supply Chain 2024 report, 16 million cybercrime events … [Read more...]
Senator Elizabeth Warren Calls for Antitrust Investigation into Domain Registrar Verisign
WASHINGON, D.C. - Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is claiming that internet domain registrar Verisign is a “monopoly” and is subsequently demanding that an antitrust investigation be carried out against the company. Working in conjunction with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Warren sent a letter last week to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that accuses the top-level domain (TLD) market of being tightly controlled by Verisign, whom she claims … [Read more...]
Reddit Community, Unstoppable Domains Partner to Launch .MOON Blockchain Domain
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The 8.8 million users of Reddit’s r/cryptocurrency community have partnered up with internet registrar Unstoppable Domains to launch the first-ever Reddit community-based blockchain Top-Level Domain (TLD), .MOON. Built on the Polygon blockchain, .MOON will enable the crypto community members of Reddit to interact with more than 865 blockchain applications and wallets, in addition to allowing them to establish digital identities with which to do … [Read more...]
Chat.com Purchased by Artificial Intelligence Company OpenAI for Over $15 Million
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - It was revealed this week that “chat.com” was purchased by San Francisco, California-based artificial intelligence (AI) research organization OpenAI for over $15 million, marking the third time the domain has changed hands in just two years. HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah originally purchased Chat.com last year for $15.5 million; he then flipped it for an unspecified amount reported to be “well over $15 million” – with the entrepreneur writing at the … [Read more...]
Amazon Seizes Domains Used by Russian Hackers Targeting Windows Users
SEATTLE, WA - Online shopping retail giant Amazon this week seized multiple internet domains that have been utilized by Russian hackers to launch phishing attacks that targeted users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Chief Information Security Officer at Amazon, CJ Moses, announced in a blog post that Midnight Blizzard, otherwise known as APT29 – a threat actor directly sponsored by the Russian government – had been targeting government agencies, empires, … [Read more...]
Senator Demands Domain Registrars Address Russian Influence Operations During 2024 Election
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has issued a demand to several of the top American internet domain registrars to clamp down on the abuse of their services by Russian disinformation actors who he alleged are attempting to interfere with and influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Warner sent a letter earlier in October to several well-known companies in the web domain registering and hosting … [Read more...]