AUSTRALIA - A South Australian woman narrowly avoided a complete financial disaster after falling victim to a sophisticated business email compromise (BEC) scam that led to the loss of over $800,000. Authorities have since managed to recover a significant portion of the stolen funds, shedding light on the growing threat of cyber fraud in real estate transactions. The victim, who had been in the process of purchasing a property, received what appeared to be a legitimate … [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...]
Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Underscores China’s Growing Capabilities in Development
MENLO PARK, CA - DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has rapidly ascended to the top of Apple's App Store charts in the UK, US, and China following its launch on President Donald Trump's inauguration day. This swift rise has raised concerns among tech experts and free-speech advocates, with some labeling it as AI's "Sputnik moment." The application, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, functions similarly to ChatGPT, generating human-like responses to user prompts. Notably, … [Read more...]
Large-Scale Fraud Campaign Utilizes Over 700 Domains to Sell Fraudulent Tickets
CHANDLER, AR - Authorities have discovered that a group behind a widespread internet scam – dubbed “Ticket Heist” – has been utilizing over 700 domain names, registered over the course of over two years, in order to sell fraudulent tickets and hotel accommodations to the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. The operation, which researchers at threat intelligence company QuoIntelligence say seems to primarily target Russian-speaking individuals, has not only offered … [Read more...]
Investigation Uncovers 40,000 Phishing Domains Linked To LabHost Scam Operation
UNITED KINGDOM - The LabHost phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform, which had tens of thousands of phishing domains linked to it and thousands of users worldwide, has had its infrastructure completely disrupted and 37 suspects have been arrested – including the original developer – following a year-long global law enforcement operation. Originally launched in 2021, LabHost was a resource for cybercriminals that – for a monthly subscription fee – provided them … [Read more...]
World’s Biggest Ransomware Group Shut Down, Domains Seized in Global Operation
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The operations of infamous ransomware group LockBit have been shut down, their domains seized, and several high-ranking members placed under arrest as the result of a recent digital takedown carried out by an international law enforcement operation. Operation Cronos, the code name of a joint effort made up by agencies representing 11 countries – Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United … [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...]
List of Newer “Keyword Rich” gTLD Domains Changing Hands So Far This Year (NameBio)
NEW YORK, NY - This is not going to be an all inclusive list as some domain sales go unreported and some I've heard of which are not listed, such as "Homes.Forsale" and "Houses.Forsale", but this will give you a good idea of the types of names changing hands and the types of dots which are building momentum. The following list of gTLDs were listed at NameBio as closing sometime during this year (2017). They are listed in alphabetical order by TLD. The list does not include … [Read more...]
Sedo Announces Management Change: Matthias Meyer-Schönherr Appointed CSO
GERMANY - June 8, 2017 – Sedo, the world’s largest domain marketplace and monetization provider is pleased to announce a shift within the Sedo management team. The role of Chief Sales Officer (CSO) Global has been assumed by Sedo and industry veteran, Matthias Meyer-Schönherr. Dima Beitzke, will be stepping down to pursue a new opportunity outside of the domain industry. The management of both the North American and International sales teams will continue from Sedo’s … [Read more...]
Verisign Still Pushing Hard on .Net Domains; Sales Remain Active; New IDN for Korea
NEW YORK, NY - While at NamesCon, I noticed a television commercial for the .net domain extension pushing it as a leading “trusted extension” and touting its long standing history in the domain space; the .net domain name was created on the same day as the .com in January 1985. (I’m pretty sure the video was part of Verisign’s “Uncommonly Timeless” collection of .net marketing pieces - it looked like one of these on YouTube [one is below].) According to Verisign, the … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurial Thinkers: Registering Your Own Trademark; Without Hiring a Lawyer
Many business owners and entrepreneurial thinkers would probably like to register a trademark but they think it’s too expensive or that you have to hire a few lawyers to get it done. Not so. Registering your own trademark is fairly easy to do provided you know a little about, well, what you want the trademark to be – That’s it. The process is easier than you might think. Now the office for Trademarks is the same office where you would file a patent, a much more complicated … [Read more...]