WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Late last week, five new top-level domains (TLDs) were made available for early access registration, spanning a variety of different uses and covering topics that are designed to appeal to very specific audiences. The five TLDs in question are .diy, .food, .living, .lifestyle, and .vana, all of which were acquired late last year by Internet Naming Co. from Lifestyle Domain Holdings, which was the previous owner but had not yet launched the … [Read more...]
ACE Enforcement Action Reaches Record Levels, Over 3,000 Pirate Domains Seized
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has stepped up their enforcement actions recently, having seized over 3,000 pirate site domains over the past few weeks. But despite this impressive effort, the number of new and illegal domains constantly taking the place of the ones that have been taken down are never-ending. The domains in question – which revolve around pirating copyrighted video entertainment such as movies and television … [Read more...]
Ethereum Name Service, GoDaddy Partner for Free Pairing of Domains, Crypto Wallets
ARIZONA - The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) – a decentralized, blockchain-based naming system that facilitates user-friendly names for wallet addresses – and domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy have partnered up to allow customers to pair Domain Name System (DNS) website domains (such as .com or .net) to an ENS (.eth) name for free which will promote use with crypto apps and wallets. While ENS domains can be assigned to an Ethereum wallet to streamline the … [Read more...]
ICANN Proposes New “.INTERNAL” Domain for Local “192.168.x.x” IP Addresses
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – the nonprofit organization that oversees the domain industry – is proposing a way to cut down on the confusion associated with local “192.168.x.x” IP addresses by creating a new top-level domain (TLD): “.INTERNAL,” which would be for internal use but never connected into DNS or other infrastructure that would enable others users to access it on the open web. “192.168.x.x” IP … [Read more...]
My.box Inc. Announces Groundbreaking “Future of Digital ID” With “.Box” Domain
CAYMAN ISLANDS - My.box Inc. has announced what they referred to as the groundbreaking “future of digital identity” in the domain name industry: the impending launch of their new “.box” domain, which they tout as the first-ever blockchain native, DNS-routable domain supported by browsers, email, and digital wallets. According to a statement released by My.box Inc. Founder Josh Brandley, the .box domain enables users to integrate multiple aspects of their online identities … [Read more...]
10 Billion Connections to Malicious Domains Blocked by NSA in 2023 via “PDNS”
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Security Agency (NSA) noted that 10 billion user connections to known malicious or suspicious domains were blocked over the course of the past year as part of the agency’s efforts, according to its 2023 Cybersecurity Year in Review report released on Tuesday. The NSA‘s annual report is a public account of the agency’s work with government partners, defense industrial base (DIB) entities, and foreign partners to help keep the nation secure, … [Read more...]
Shiba Inu Developers Planning on Launch of First Crypto Top-Level Domain “.shib”
NEW YORK, NY - The development team behind the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency – inspired by the Shiba Inu, a Japanese dog breed which also serves as the mascot for Dogecoin – is planning on launching the first ever crypto top-level domain in partnership with domain company D3. Shiba Inu are currently waiting for approval of the new domain, “.shib,” which is slated to be utilized for websites and email for what is being described as a “decentralized identity project for internet … [Read more...]
“Prolific Puma” Created 75k Unique Domain Names Since April 2022 Used for Scams
SANTA CLARA, CA - Researchers from security vendor Infoblox have uncovered an actor known as “Prolific Puma” that has been revealed as having provided link shortening services for countless cyber criminals for a span of time of at least four years or longer, an act that has likely been responsible for an immense number of scams targeting innocent people. As an example of how Prolific Puma lives up to the "prolific” part of their name, the actor reportedly … [Read more...]
WordPress Offering 1 Million Google Users Opportunity to Transfer Domains Free
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - One month after Squarespace entered into a deal to purchase Google Domains – which encompasses all of it’s assets, including approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of customers – web content management company WordPress has announced they would be offering former Google users free domain transfers for the first million domains that choose to move to their platform for a limited time. Currently, Google Domains customers … [Read more...]
Threat Intelligence Firm Recommends Blocking All .ZIP Domains Due to Phishing
SUNNYVALE, CA - FortiGuard Labs reports that they have discovered many .ZIP domains are responsible for phishing attacks on users by automatically downloading a malicious executable titled “file.exe” to their computers. Phishing attacks have been a thorn in the side of computer users for years due to the fact that they often are able to camouflage themselves as innocuous programs or prompts that seemingly pose no threat, but in reality can cause a great deal of … [Read more...]
Website Company Squarespace Enters Agreement to Purchase Google Domains
NEW YORK, NY - New York City-based website building and hosting company Squarespace announced this week that they will be entering into an agreement to purchase Google Domains – a domain name registrar operated by Google that offers domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding – in a deal that includes all of the company's assets, which includes approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of … [Read more...]
Popular Domain Name Software BIND Patched to Correct Severe Vulnerabilities
NEWMARKET, NH - In an effort to address what has been referred to as “severe security vulnerabilities,” the nonprofit Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) has released a series of patches for multiple versions of BIND 9, a popular suite of software utilized for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). The issues with BIND – which stands for Berkeley Internet Name Domain – were uncovered by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and … [Read more...]
Why Verisign ‘NASDAQ:VRSN’ Will Inevitably Get Its .COM Domain Price Increase Sought
PALM BEACH – There has been a lot of talk in tech and domain circles lately about the company “Verisign” (NASDAQ:VRSN), its obvious monopoly in the .com domain game, and it’s long list of subsidiaries, but things really started to heat-up back in October 2018 when the company managed to renew its “cooperative agreement” with the United States Government through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), minus long-standing pricing caps on one of … [Read more...]
Verisign Receives Regulatory Approval to Raise .COM Prices; Restrictions Deleted
NEW YORK, NY – Although many had hoped it wouldn’t happen, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company behind the registration and creation of .COM domain names, has been given the virtual green light by the US Government to raise the price of .com domain names by 7% in each of the last four years of a six-year incremental contract. Late Thursday, news broke that the “Cooperative Agreement”, an agreement between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration … [Read more...]
Alphabet Releases App to Prevent DNS Manipulation, Deter Online Censorship
NEW YORK, - Google’s Alphabet has released a new Android app called “Intra” which prevents “DNS manipulation”, a process used often by ISPs to redirect invalid domain name resolution to their own version of branded search results, usually accompanied by search engine ads – when used nefariously, it is also a tactic of hackers who steal and redirect users to phishing sites or to otherwise dupe them into downloading viruses and spyware. The app is made available by a company … [Read more...]