WhoisXML API Blog

How a Domain Checker Helps in Digital Forensics and Incident Response

Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) experts have a unique yet essential role in maintaining the overall cybersecurity of any organization. They are responsible for gathering data about ongoing attacks or attempts, mitigating their possible effects, and implementing post-attack actions. That includes digging deeper to obtain evidence to enhance their cyber defense as well as aiding in law enforcement efforts.

The fact that attacks are getting stealthier and more sophisticated, though, in terms of tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) make DFIR experts’ jobs ever more difficult. They must not only resolve issues in as little time as possible but also be there to prevent successful attacks from causing irreparable damage to systems or their companies’ reputations.

Timely detection is, therefore, the answer. Then again, DFIR experts get bombarded by numerous notifications from security tools every day and thus can get easily overwhelmed by false positives. So they need solutions that can help them quickly verify the validity and quality of domains, IP addresses, and email addresses that their users come in contact with. Domain search solutions such as WHOIS Lookup and its API version WHOIS API may just be what they are looking for. Let’s discuss the reasons why.

Domain and IP Intelligence: Tracking the Spike in Coronavirus-Themed Domain Registrations

The first cases of COVID-19 infection came to the fore in December 2019. Five months later, the world is still reeling from the disease. The numbers are overwhelming. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, more than 4 million people worldwide have gotten infected, over 290,000 of whom have died from the disease at the time of writing. And dismayingly, these numbers are still expected to rise.

In response, governments all over the world have imposed varying degrees of social distancing strategies. People are urged to stay home, schools are closed, mass transportation in many countries is suspended, and countless small businesses have ceased operations. For the majority, one consolation of being in home quarantine is their access to the Internet and, therefore, the world. But even on the Web, people are not safe from the virus.

Using our IP and domain intelligence, we detected an increasing trend toward coronavirus-themed domain bulk registrations—some of which may have to do with the proliferation of coronavirus-themed cybercrimes taking advantage of the pandemic. Let us show you our key findings.

Essential tools for server operators in action

The Internet is a very dangerous place. A server with a public IP address could become the subject of an attack virtually at any time of its operation. Indeed, any service that is vulnerable to any extent is likely to be exploited at some point if left this way; no server operator can deny playing this cat-and-mouse game with hackers. 

Not all hackers meet the stereotypes attributed to them, though. One does not have to be an ingenious IT specialist with very tricky ideas to try and exploit servers. Picking an exploit kit written by someone else, and letting it run on arbitrary IP addresses is essentially free, and it will surely harvest something: sooner or later it will run into a content management system on a website whose owner failed to apply some important security update, or web-based database management console left open to the public. All these could result in an administrator’s access to the server, which may lead to dramatic consequences for the owner. 

It is always instructive, for instance, to frequently take a good look at the access log of your web servers. Let us conduct a bit of an investigation to illustrate what is typically going on.

Make the Most Out of SEO with a Reverse IP Search Tool

Today, it is no longer enough for organizations to advertise their products and services online. Markets are pretty saturated, and so companies need to put extra effort into making sure they come out on top. In particular, businesses need to drive traffic to their websites, much like brick-and-mortar shop owners convince would-be customers to come through their doors.

One of the most effective ways to do that is by making your company’s domain rank with the help of innovative search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Apart from just stuffing content with the right keywords for search engines to track, SEO has a technical aspect to it as well, and a reverse IP search tool like Reverse IP/DNS Lookup can help enhance it.

We’ll delve into the more technical aspect of SEO in this post, but first, let’s discuss why SEO is vital for any organization that does business online.

Is This Email Address Valid? Here Are 5 Ways to Check and Why It Matters

Based on research data, the global email user base will be increasing by 2-3% every year until it reaches 4.4 billion users in 2023. So, more than ever, email marketers need to be able to answer the following questions: Are all the email addresses in my recipient lists valid? Will my messages be able to reach intended recipients or not? Also, do any of my collected addresses have ties to malicious activity?

Each day, users send an average of 54 billion legitimate emails across the globe. Interestingly, a whole lot more malicious spam messages get sent, averaging 302.99 billion a day. When threats are everywhere, the mere act of opening spam could lead to becoming the next victim of phishing or an even more sinister attack.

On the other side of the fence, meanwhile, marketers are worried that their messages may not reach the right people. A lot of organizations suffer from high bounce and low open rates, with adverse effects on their marketing efforts. Sadly, no matter how great your campaigns are, if your emails do not reach loyal customers or leads of interest, your efforts are bound to go down the drain.

To alleviate these and other issues, organizations need a means to be able to check the validity of email addresses they come in contact with. So, email verification with products such as Email Verification Lookup or its counterparts Email Verification API or Email Verification Bulk API can be integral to any company’s successful and efficient operations. To illustrate how these tools work exactly, we listed down five supported email checks in this post.

3 Reasons for Online Shopping Cart Abandonment and How Geo IP Targeting Can Address Them

Almost 70% of shopping carts are abandoned upon checkout, based on 41 different studies. In light of this, checkout optimization should be a top priority for e-commerce websites to reduce the number of cart abandonment, and, therefore, missed revenue opportunities.

Think about this example: Out of more than 20 million e-commerce sites all over the world, 10 customers found your online store and liked your products enough to put some of them in their shopping carts. When they reach the checkout page, around seven decide to abandon their carts, leaving only three actual paying customers. Either the seven people changed their minds entirely or they decided to buy from a competitor.

It’s hard enough to make an e-commerce website stand out from the millions that offer similar products. It’s equally challenging to convince customers to stay and complete purchases. It is, however, not impossible.

In this article, we examined three reasons for cart abandonment according to the Baymard Institute and how geo IP targeting can help solve the problem by offering a smoother online shopping experience.

How to Check Domain Name Availability and Safety

One of the most important moments of building your online presence is creating the name of your domain. In the digital sphere, the domain is your address and your identity. Before you settle for a domain, however, you have to jump through a few hoops.

You may think of a perfect name only to discover that it’s already taken or too similar to another brand’s domain. You may find that the perfect domain name is available but you cannot afford it. So how do you find the middle ground between originality, availability and affordability? More importantly, how do you avoid winding up with a domain name you may regret? With a little bit of brainstorming and research. We’ll show you how.

How to Check Site Activity & Validity with Domain and IP Intelligence Tools

In an industry that increasingly gets more competitive every day, a seller’s reputation matters a lot. As personal selling is not possible online, e-commerce sites rely on several factors to establish consumer trust. Among them are reviews, which compensate for the lack of face-to-face transactions. In fact, 90% of consumers stated that positive reviews influence their purchasing decisions. Consistency in terms of the quality of one’s product and services also plays a crucial role in fostering trust.

But because digital commerce is cut-throat, online merchants sometimes resort to whatever it takes to maintain their share of the profits—even if they tarnish someone else’s reputation in the process. For instance, some sell replicas and pass them off as authentic items. They may also impersonate legitimate businesses on your site or manipulate product search results with blackhat marketing techniques. Finally, with the right exploit tools, some even manage to hijack someone else’s brand, starting with products and the target’s account.

This tutorial instructs users on performing vendor website assessments with enterprise-grade domain and IP intelligence solutions to prevent rogue sellers from abusing e-commerce platforms. But before we go on, let’s first deconstruct the reasons behind website audits.