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...]
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...]
Great Search Engine, Strange Web URL; Two Years Later, “Duck.com” Still Just Redirects
PALM BEACH, FL – A couple of days ago I looked up and saw a highway sign and thought to myself, 'great search engine, horrible name.' That was after seeing a sign off I-95, in West Palm Beach, Florida advertising what is a better search engine then Bing and Yahoo, but still far less use. Also sort of odd, there was no web URL on the sign. Back in 2018, the domain name “Duck.com” was seen to have changed hands according to domain registrar details pointed out by domain … [Read more...]
How Expired Domain Names Have Been Used to Redirect to Malicious Websites
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Expired domains or domain names which have not been renewed by their previous owner are encountered by all of us often – most times we just don’t notice it. When we do, we open a website only to find out it no longer exists. We are redirected to a site with links on it, or it showcases a sales page for auction of the domain name. These types of websites are generally considered harmless, but recent research proves otherwise. In a report released by … [Read more...]
It’s Only A Matter of Time Until You Need to Be Licensed to Operate A Web Server
PALM BEACH, FL – I have been thinking about this off and on for a few years now, but I have never really posted or written about it. That is because it is an awful prediction that I hate the idea of, but I think it is going to eventually happen. Here it goes…. I predict that to operate a web server sometime in the near future, you will be required to have a license, or have passed a basic course in IT security or Cybersecurity intrusion mitigation. Not at the single site … [Read more...]
Email Phishing Campaign Using Legitimate Top-Level Domain to Evade Spam Filters
PALM BEACH, FL – A sophisticated email phishing campaign is making the rounds while evading email filters by using a Google domain redirect. According to ThreatPost.com, a leading source of information about IT and business security, the campaign uses percentage-based URL encoding to deceive users. The campaign makes use of what’s called percentage-based URL encoding – a basic URL-encoding technique in which normal ASCII characters (i.e., “abc” and “123”) are converted … [Read more...]
Using Expired Domains and Domain Redirects to Increase Traffic & Rankings
PALM BEACH, FL – While I see domain name redirects in play - almost every day, rarely do I see them tied to an obvious tracking campaign as one I stumbled onto this morning. Most know, that it’s no secret using expired domain names as strategic acquisitions can be good for business. Just as in real estate, purchasing a good piece of commercial property will yield existing foot-traffic, likewise, purchasing an existing or expired domain name delivers its virtual equivalent … [Read more...]
.Club Registry Reports 2019 Domain Sales; Let’s Look at What’s Parked vs Developed
PALM BEACH – It’s always interesting to see what people are purchasing in the domain space, and then even more interesting is to look at how much they've spent and what they’re doing with that acquisition, especially when it comes to the controversial new gTLD space. According to OnlineDomain.com, the “.Club” domain registry folks have reported their 2019 domain sales including a big one namely, "Business.Club" - all of which sales are listed at sold.domains. Let’s … [Read more...]
Hallmark Continues to ‘Cash-In’ On Premium Holiday Web Name “Easter.com”, Or Does It?
WEST PALM BEACH – Originally registered in 1998, the domain name “Easter.com” redirects visitors to the Hallmark.com website where conveniently Easter cards and gifts are highlighted. This is a good use of a premium domain name, outside of development of course. Hallmark has owned this domain name since at least 2010 when it was highlighted by Domain Name Wire. Out of curiosity, I decided to visit it this morning to see what’s there. A good question to ask, if even … [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...]
List of 424 New gTLD Domain Names Which Changed Hands This Year (NameBio)
NEW YORK, NY - I hate to sound like I am complaining, because no-one asked me to look into this, but I am pretty confident I just inspected the longest list of broken, junk, parked, meaningless web sites I've seen in a single sitting. Long, grueling, and very unrewarding we'll call it - as I've learned not much more than I already suspected before, which is that most of these new gTLD domains seem like hypothetical, wishful-thinking lotto tickets that will likely be bets (or … [Read more...]
Just 2% of Top 100 Highest Priced .xyz Domains In Use for Bonafide Services
NEW YORK, NY - According to nTLDStats.com, a data provider offering statistics for new gTLDs, the .xyz domain has the highest number of registrations out of all new gtld domains available. Looking at the highest value sold .xyz domains in all reported aftermarket sales, 98% of them are not developed or show any signs by their owners for development in the future. Out of the 100 domains checked, just two (2) of them are developed with one (1), spring.xyz, looking like it … [Read more...]
Show Me The Money: Combined $22M+ in Sales Hiding Behind .com Numeric Domains
I have to admit I know very little about numeric domain names. They never made much sense to me but I know they are very popular in the Chinese market and within the Chinese investment space. The closest I ever came was owning for a short period of time, 7BJ.com which I was able to sell with minimal - minimal effort. What I originally thought was a very unusual domain was desired by many. If I remember correctly I sold it for a few thousand dollars nearly a decade ago. With … [Read more...]
80% of Top 100 Highest .club Domain Buyers Leave Parked, Redirected, or Failing DNS
Next up in a new series of top 100 development potential domains lists is the .club domain. In comparison to top 100 LLL .com Liquid Domains, top 100 .net, and top 100 .org, I wanted to take a look at some gTLDs to see what buyers are actually doing with them and .club comes to mind first. The team at .club has done a fantastic job in marketing their new gTLD and it will be interesting to see. Sales figures are one thing when valuing domains, but actual development shows … [Read more...]
Top 100 Highest .org Domain Sales Indicate Strong Interest, Desire by End-Users
As a follow up to yesterday's look at the largest .net domain name sales in history and what use is actually being put towards these domains from end users, .net appears hurting in actual business owner belief in what these domain assets are worth when building a foundation for business. Today, we're looking at .org - and holy smokes is it a different story with .org buyers; many more develop and launch their projects on them. The list below ($6.2 million dollars in domain … [Read more...]