WEST PALM BEACH, FL - At this point, the Internet has been around for a while, and there are countless number of domain names out there that have been snapped up for nearly every conceivable purpose. With that being said, an ever-growing number of legitimate brand name domains have been snapped up, giving rise to the growing popularity of alternate spellings of well known, generic, business-related keywords for domains, known as “sensational spelling.” Sensational spelling … [Read more...]
Thousands of “Sitting Duck” Domain Names Highjacked by Russian Cybercriminals
PALM BEACH, FL - A critical vulnerability within the Domain Name System (DNS) has been unearthed and exploited by dozens of cybercriminals and hackers originating from Russia to take over thousands of domain names, according to cybersecurity researchers from Infoblox and Eclypsium. An estimated 30,000 legitimate domains have been hijacked by the digital thieves since 2019, experts say, utilizing a technique known as “Sitting Ducks” that exploits weak DNS services. The … [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...]
49 Million Customers Data Affected After Dell Technologies Data Breach
ROUND ROCK, TX - A security incident has come to light, prompting concerns among users. Dell Technologies, a prominent player in the tech industry, disclosed a data breach affecting a substantial number of customers, totaling 49 million. While the breach does not involve sensitive financial or payment data, it nonetheless exposes personal information, including full names, cities, postal codes, and purchase details. Despite seeming innocuous, this data can be exploited by … [Read more...]
Google Now Displays Wallet Balances for Ethereum Name Services (ENS) Domains
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - Google has recently integrated native support for wallet balances of Ethereum Name Services (ENS) domains in its search results, a move that should simplify the process of sending and receiving funds on the part of cryptocurrency holders by substituting standard – and, thus, easier to remember – domain names in the place of the complicated wallet addresses commonly associated with blockchain-specific domains. ENS translates computer identifiers into … [Read more...]
Thousands of Domain Names Owned by Legitimate Brands Hijacked to Send Spam
TEL AVIV - As part of a sophisticated scheme involving spam proliferation and click monetization, over 8,000 domains and 13,000 sub-domains once owned by major, legitimate brands and institutions have been hijacked to allow millions of spam emails to bypass standard security blocks for nefarious gain. This coordinated malicious activity – dubbed “SubdoMailing” – has been going on since at least September 2022, according to Guardio Labs, the Israeli security … [Read more...]
Report: Domain Squatting, Brand Hijacking Presenting Increased Threat Across Internet
PALM BEACH, FL - “Domain squatting” – AKA cybersquatting – and “brand hijacking” are two internet-based threats that present unique dangers to both businesses and end users, opening up some to cybersecurity threats and brand/trademark damage including potential phishing and malware attacks. Domain squatting is registering or using a domain name to profit from a trademark belonging to a well-known brand, typically by registering a misspelled version of their URL to … [Read more...]
FEDs Seize 17 Domains Suspected of Being Used for Fraud in U.S. by North Korea
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, the United States Justice Department announced it has seized 17 website domains utilized by North Korean information technology (IT) workers to purportedly evade government sanctions, conduct cyberattacks and defraud U.S. businesses, with the millions of dollars in illicit proceeds generated from such activities being used to fund North Korea's weapon development program. The Justice Department confirmed in a statement that the … [Read more...]
Domain History As Google Ranking Factor Highlighted Again in Search Engine Journal
BOCA RATON, FL - The history of domain name can have a decisively significant factor in terms of its Google ranking. If a user owns a domain that is new and has never been used before then they essentially have a clean slate, but if the domain name was previously owned and has changed hands – perhaps even more than once – how it was utilized by its previous owner and/or owners could absolutely have an impact on your ranking going forward. Most people don't pay much … [Read more...]
Scammers Sending Emails from Spoofed Authoritative Domains Via Forwarding Flaws
LA JOLLA, CA - According to research conducted by the University of California San Diego, due to flaws inherent in the process of forwarding emails, the ability for scammers and attackers to send unsuspecting victims e-mails from the spoofed addresses of top-level government or corporate domains is actually much easier than many experts were initially suspecting, opening up disturbingly new and effective avenues for online fraud. The integrity of emails sent from … [Read more...]
Panels Consistently Find That “Domain Investing” Is Legitimate Bona Fide Offering
PALM BEACH, FL – Upon reading recent news from “Neus News”, I stumbled onto an interesting find where Howard Neu, a long-time attorney for the domain name industry, was representing a domain owner in a case where Oath Inc. (now Verizon Media), the company that purchased Yahoo! related assets in 2017 for $4.83 billion, claimed the domain name “YMobile.com” was infringing on Yahoo! related trademarks such as “Y”’ and “Y!”, as well as “Y Mobile” (although Y Mobile is only held … [Read more...]
Debunked: Why Do People Still Believe “Domain Name Age” Matters for SEO?
PALM BEACH – I stumbled on a post today about “domain age” and SEO and how it is a long debunked "myth" that domain name age matters when it comes to SEO, and that of course, it does not. But where did this (if even) false believe originate from to begin with?? Why do webmasters and domainers believe that domain age plays a role at all? Where did this myth come from? And was its source even reliable? It came from the horse’s mouth when Google filed its patent for “DOCUMENT … [Read more...]
Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK - According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS. The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined … [Read more...]
An Unbiased New gTLD Case Study is Coming; Not Sponsored, Supported or in Anyway Influenced by Any Registry
NEW YORK - I'll have an interesting new gTLD case study coming in the next few days to a week or so. It’s going to be great, because I think it’s going to work. I think the position of the website in Google is going to improve greatly by doing nothing else but changing the URL to a new keyword rich gTLD. If I'm wrong I will have wasted another $150 on gTLDs, but either way I will learn and so will you. Now if you follow my updates you will be aware that I am usually more of … [Read more...]
Could Domain Investing Industry End with Legal Provision for Domain “Hoarding”
NEW YORK, NY - What if you had to have a legitimate use for each and every domain name you have registered in your domain account? What if every single domain name you owned had to be associated with a business website which served its own purpose? It’s not happening yet, but it could happen. Every once in a while people ask me what I think are coming challenges for domain owners and I always have the same answer; regulation. If you follow what happened in the 1-800 Toll … [Read more...]