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...]
Global Domain Registrations Reach 364.3 Million in Q4 2024, Despite .Com Decline
RESTON, VA - According to the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report from DNIB.com, the fourth quarter of 2024 concluded with 364.3 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs). This represents an increase of 2.0 million registrations, or 0.5%, compared to the third quarter of 2024, and a year-over-year growth of 4.4 million registrations, or 1.2%. The combined total of .com and .net TLDs reached 169.0 million domain name … [Read more...]
Hackers Utilizing Russian Domains for Rising Number of Complex Phishing Attacks
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...]
Namecheap Publishes Results Naming Highest TLD, Domain Registrations for 2024
PHOENIX, AZ - One of the most well-known domain registrars in the world, Namecheap, has released the results of a study outlining the highest number of domains registered through its service in the Top-Level Domain (TLD) as well as National Domain categories for the year 2024. Namecheap’s report notes that the most popular TLD registered with the company in 2024, unsurprisingly, was .COM, which took a commanding lead with 3,661,899 registrations. The number two slot ended … [Read more...]
Scammers & Cybercriminals Using Cheap New Domains To Host Fake Websites
BOSTON, MA - A new report is pointing to new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) launched within the past few years, such as .Top, and .Shop as contributing to an increase in use by scammers and cybercriminals due to the fact that – given their relatively new status on the market – they are cheaper to register compared to more established domains. According to Interisle Consulting Group’s newly-published Cybercrime Supply Chain 2024 report, 16 million cybercrime events … [Read more...]
56% Increase In Disaster Recovery Events Related To Microsoft 365 Domains
REDMOND, WA - According to new data released by IT services data protection and security company N-able, 2024 so far has seen a huge uptick in hacking and cyberattacks targeting Microsoft 365 domains, with a 56 percent increase in the number of disaster recovery events among the service’s clients and a large uptick in the number of backups among its partners. Critical Start’s Cyber Research Unit (CRU) issued a report that states the number of cyber alerts in the first … [Read more...]
AT&T Discloses Major Data Breach Affecting Approximately 70+ Million Accounts
DALLAS, TX - AT&T recently revealed a cybersecurity incident that exposed call and text message records for a significant portion of its customer base. The breach impacted nearly all of AT&T's cellular customers, along with customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that utilize AT&T's network. Even some landline customers who interacted with AT&T cellular users during the timeframe are included. While the compromised data doesn't contain the … [Read more...]
New 2024 Global Domain Report Notes “Game Changing” Industry Insights for “.AI”
CAMBRIDGE, MA - InterNetX and Sedo Have released their 2024 Global Domain Report, which breaks down the domain industry and examines trends and shifts that are expected in the upcoming year, with the main emphasis being placed upon tech developments and the evolution of AI and its growing influence upon the internet. The free-to-download 80-page report – of which this article will provide a brief summary – noted that 359.8 million new domains were registered in 2023, … [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...]
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...]
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...]
VeriSign Says “.COM” Registrations Up, “NGTLDS” Up, Legacy “.NET” Down
RESTON, VA - VeriSign Inc., a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, announced that their total number of Top-Level Domain (TLD) registrations worldwide have reached 356.6 million as of the end of the second quarter of 2023, as per the company’s latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB). Verisign, based out of Reston, Virginia, operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen … [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...]
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...]
Hyphenated Domain Name Fetches Over $61k In Latest SEDO Weekly Sales Report
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The hyphenated domain name “TN-I.com” sold at $61,990 this past week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report. The web address is currently parked. I've always avoided hyphenated domains unless the words being used are ordinarily hyphenated or it separates two extremely popular words mostly used together. There are some instances where this works well, but with TN-I, let's just say I'm not a fan of this one. Also … [Read more...]