Our team monitored the DNS for registration activities related to some of the most trending and pressing issues in August, ranging from sports to global disasters. An overview for each trend is below.

Student Loans

White House officials announced on 23 August 2022 that the current administration plans to cancel up to US$20,000 in student loans. As borrowers strived to learn how to avail of the debt cancellation, domains containing the phrase “student loan” also increased. In particular, there was a 201% increase in new domains in August compared to the previous month. The spike is evident in the chart below.

Recurring words used in the domains are “scholarships,” “refinance,” “debt,” “forgiveness,” and “info.” The general public is cautioned against some of the student loan-themed domains, as they can serve as vehicles for phishing and financial scams.

Football

The National Football League (NFL) preseason began on 4 August 2022. Since then, there has been a steady stream of relevant domain registrations, particularly those containing “football.” The graph below shows the domain registration trend from June to July, reflecting an increase in July which steadied all throughout August. 

There was a slight increase in registrations during the third week of the preseason, which coincided with one player’s suspension. You can see the domain registration trend for August in the chart below.

Some of the text strings mostly used in the domains registered in August are “American,” “club,” “arabianclub,” “club,” and “pro.” These and other strings are shown in the word cloud below.

Natural Disasters

The effects of climate change have been quite evident in the past few months. We decided to check relevant domain registrations in light of the news about wildfires in the U.S., monsoon floods in Pakistan and South Korea, and other natural disasters worldwide.

Although the registrations were relatively steady in the past six months, the highest concentration of new domains was seen in May and August. These coincided with devastating disasters that made headlines. For instance, California and New Mexico were ravaged by wildfires, starting in May. Monsoon rains that led to extreme floods occurred some time in August. The chart below shows the registration trend for natural disaster-themed domains.

Some of the most common text strings used in disaster-themed domains are “insure,” “newmexico,” ‘risk,” “safety,” and “light.” The string “lab” also appeared repeatedly, alongside “wildfire” and “flood.”

Ukraine-Russia War

Six months into the Ukraine-Russia war, the domain registrations seem to be dwindling, as seen in the chart below. There was an apparent spike in March, a week after the conflict started on 24 February 2022. However, registrations dropped by the thousands in April and continued to decline. However, note that relevant domain registrations still exceeded pre-war levels.

The text strings that appeared alongside “Ukraine” continued to be consistent. They include “help,” “support,” “aid,” “save,” and “donate,” among other words shown in the word cloud below.

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