PALM BEACH, FL - A four-letter “.com” domain name has been purchased for the staggering price of $15 million dollars. NFTS.com was first registered approximately 18 years ago, likely for $10.00 or $20.00. Who knew that the letters “NFTS” would become a four-letter acronym for “non-fungible tokens,” - unique cryptographic tokens? Four letter domains, often referred to as "LLLL" domains, are relatively scarce. There are roughly 457,000 possible four-letter combinations and … [Read more...]
Reported Twitter Data Breach Potentially Affects 5.4 Million Accounts
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Stolen personal information from 5.4 million Twitter users has been discovered for sale on a hacker forum. With this information, including emails and phone numbers, cybercriminals can create profiles to target victims with spam or phishing attempts which could lead to identity theft. Twitter is currently investigating claims that a near-seven-month-old vulnerability in its software has been exploited and the hacker is asking for $30,000 for the … [Read more...]
Massive Data Breach of Neopets Website Affects 69 Million Users
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Neopets, a virtual pet and gaming community, has reported a data breach exposing personal information like usernames, passwords, IP addresses, and more of 69 million user accounts. By combining this information, cybercriminals could target users with spam or phishing attempts to access additional personal information which could lead to identity theft. Neopets representatives have published a statement on Twitter addressing the breach. If … [Read more...]
LifeLock Confirms My Data Was Revealed on “The Dark Web” After 2021 “Epik” Data Leak
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – This morning I received an email notification that information or data which is presumed to be connected to my identity has been found on “The Dark Web” after the domain name and hosting company, Epik.com was hacked last year. The service is part of LifeLock by Norton. The following message arrived: Logging into my account a more detailed explanation explains that my personal information associated with the epik.com leak was located on the Dark … [Read more...]
GoDaddy Makes Two Recent Acquisitions of Leading Domainer Tools and Services
TEMPE, AZ - GoDaddy, the well-known domain registrar and hosting company, announced last week they will be acquiring competing domain sales company Dan.com, a move that GoDaddy stated would enable them to “reach more potential buyers.” Previously launching under the name Undeveloped, Dan.com made a name for themselves by attempting to undercut the competition by reducing their initial industry-standard commission fee of 15 percent to just 9 percent, which led to several … [Read more...]
Privacy Scandal: Has Your Data Been Stolen by These 10 “Known Tracking Domains?”
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - A new study has revealed that consumer email addresses are being collected by online login, registration, and newsletter subscriptions even before the user has manually submitted the form or even given their consent to have their personal information collected, igniting controversy over privacy rights – or lack thereof – on the internet. The goal of the study was to spot sites that pulled email and password information before users could … [Read more...]
.ORG Year in Review (2021): Top 100 LLL.org LLL.org 3 Letter Reported Sales (NameBio)
PALM BEACH, FL – According to NameBio, there were a total of 156 'reported' 3-letter LLL.org domain sales last year in 2021. The highest reported sales were the domains “UWW.org” for $47,000.00 which took place at Uniregistry, now owned by GoDaddy. The second place name was “NMF.org” for $25,000. 3 Letter .org domain names are hard to come by and large sales are pretty rare. Below are the top 100 LLL.org domain sales of 2021 which reflect $397,736.00 in sales. Platform … [Read more...]
Two Very Real and Recent Reasons to NOT Use A Country Code Domain Name (ccTLD)
PALM BEACH, FL - If you were looking for a reason to not move to a ccTLD, or country code domain name, and stick with your super-duper .com domain, no matter how weak you feel it might be, you’ve just been handed two good reasons to do so, within the last two months. In January, I wrote about tens of thousands of websites that went out of service due to the Brexit situation where the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union. As part of the transition process, over … [Read more...]
Hundreds of Domains Being Reported in Scam for Free Federal COVID-19 Test Kits
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government launched a new website in January to help distribute free at-home COVID-19 test kits to U.S. citizens; no sooner did this website go live, so did numerous copycat websites, none of which were legitimate, but many sporting very similar URLs in an attempt to run a scam on unsuspecting visitors. In mid-January, the Biden Administration announced a free COVID-19 test kit program, with the kits being distributed via the U.S. Postal … [Read more...]
Lights Out for Nearly 50,000 Websites As Brexit Results in “.EU” Domain Change
GREAT BRITAIN - As a potentially unexpected side-effect of Brexit – the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in January 2020 – approximately 48,000 websites with the domain name “.eu” are now effectively in limbo, having been taken offline on Monday since the UK citizens and organizations who own them are no longer allowed to hold those domains. The revocation of those .eu domain names by the agency in charge of registrations on Monday was the … [Read more...]
Top 100 Public Domain Name Sales for 2021 (YTD) According to NameBio.com
PALM BEACH, FL – I haven't done one of these in a good while, since 2019. Lets see what the market looks like this year. Here is how 2021, year to date (YTD) is looking as we get very close to the end of the year. The domains sales are those listed at NameBio.com, a site which keeps track of, and records publicly reported sales. Keep in mind that some sales are private or under non-disclosure agreements or otherwise go unreported for one reason or another. This list … [Read more...]
Data Security Breach At Robinhood Exposes Personal Info Of Customers
PALM BEACH, FL - The Robinhood financial service company has confirmed a data security incident that has exposed full names or email addresses for approximately seven million customers, with a smaller subset having additional personal information revealed. These customers could be targeted with spam, phishing attempts, identity theft and more. No Social Security numbers, bank account numbers or debit card numbers were exposed according to the company. Robinhood … [Read more...]
Somebody Bought The Entire Country of Portugal And It Only Cost $350,000
PALM BEACH, FL – According to a recent report that popped up in my LinkedIn feed, the domain name Portugal.com recently sold through SEDO brokerage and domain sales platform. For those wondering, Portugal is a European country on the Iberian Peninsula, bordering Spain. It’s population, according to the World Bank, is over 10 million. Many geographic domain names sell based on their overall popularity as travel destinations and largely on population size which helps in … [Read more...]
Massive Data Breach of Twitch Live Streaming Service Confirmed
PALM BEACH, FL - According to The Verge the Twitch streaming service has confirmed a data breach, which reportedly includes their source code, creator payouts, and possible leak of users’ passwords. The leak includes the following: 3 years worth of details regarding creator payouts on Twitch.The entirety of twitch.tv, “with commit history going back to its early beginnings.”Source code for the mobile, desktop, and video game console Twitch clients.Code related to … [Read more...]
PII Of Up To 4.6 Million Neiman Marcus Customers Potentially Exposed In Breach
PALM BEACH, FL - On Thursday, September 30, 2021, luxury department store Neiman Marcus announced that about 4.6 million of its customers may have had their personally identifiable information or PII compromised in a data breach that occurred in May 2020. The personal information stolen in the breach varied and may have included names and contact information, payment card numbers and expiration dates including virtual gift card numbers. Worse, the cyber-thieves may have … [Read more...]