WhoisXML API Blog

Warding Off Threats Spawned by the Abuse of Newly Registered Domains

When the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) agreed to the addition of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in 2012 through the New gTLD Program, the number of spam emails coming from these domains started to rise significantly.

In fact, studies revealed that a new malicious site is hosted on a domain with a new gTLD extension every 15-20 seconds. What’s more, seven out of 10 newly registered domains are classified as either suspicious or downright malicious and thus should not be accessed.

Threat Prediction Based on Domain Registration History

There is a tendency to look at the past to anticipate what the future may hold. The historical performance of financial investment products, for example, is always showcased, although with a disclaimer that they don't guarantee any future results. Athletes watch past performance of their would-be opponents, so they know what strategies to formulate for the future encounters.

This train of thought is also applicable, at least to some extent, to the field of cybersecurity. Knowing more about past attacks can help security teams strategize and improve their current and future cybersecurity posture.

Criminal Profiling and Evidence Gathering with Website and Domain Name Monitoring Tools

Cybercrime is a major threat to all sectors of the community, including government institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations. It continuously hurts the global economy by sucking up billions of dollars each year, prompting the head of the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to declare that fighting cybercrime should be accorded the same priority as fighting terrorism.

But is it really possible to “fight” cybercrime? Some security experts have long ceded and started focusing on cyber-resilience (the ability to bounce back after a cyber attack) instead of cybersecurity (the prevention of a cyber attack). Aside from business continuity, part of cyber-resiliency should be the legal ramifications that the victim must set in motion against the attacker. Herein lies a big challenge — discovering who the cybercriminals are.

Now, You Can Get More Information from Our Updated IP Netblocks WHOIS Database

More comprehensive IP intelligence means more value to our clients. That’s why we are proud to announce an important update on our IP Netblocks WHOIS Database, which now has significantly higher proportions of non-empty or non-redacted fields across IP netblocks.

Empty and redacted fields can create significant challenges for IP netblocks users. Cybersecurity professionals, for example, may not be able to check if certain IP addresses in a given netblock belong to the same registrant or someone else. When investigating an attack involving several individuals, it may also be harder, for example, to pinpoint if several compromised addresses are all from one IP netblock and are, therefore, linked.

Improved Data Gathering through Behavioral Targeting with IP Geolocation Lookup

The increasing use of the Internet caused a shift in how people do business. At present, business owners have to deal with stiffer competition and stricter regulations. Tracking users on the Web, while sometimes considered an infringement of privacy, is widely done by most sites today. For some organizations, tracking user behavior and patterns is actually crucial in keeping their businesses up and running.

Google (60.3%) and Facebook (27.1%) were two of the major trackers of online user behavior. Tracking online behavior has a lot to do with creating buyer personas that allow site owners to craft advertising campaigns that target their audience accurately. This technique is known as “behavioral targeting.”

How to Improve Your Website's SEO Using Cyber Intelligence

If you’re a newcomer, by now you’re probably well-acquainted with the fact that a great website or product means nothing if nobody’s going to see it. If you want to get in front of your prospective customers, you have to know two things: who they are and how to find them.

There are two ways to reach your audience via search engines: organically, through a wise SEO strategy, and using paid ads.

While paying for the ads may be the easiest way, it is not a sustainable long-term solution. That is why improving your website’s SEO content is the best way to grow your online presence and business.

What is Contextual Targeting?

Targeting is the core of digital marketing wisdom. Instead of shouting into the void in hope of hearing someone respond, you are directing your message to very specific groups, the ones that are most likely to answer. Here’s the Catch 22 of digital marketing - how do you know which groups those are and where to find them? Read on to find out!

Since tracking potential customer’s behavior is becoming increasingly difficult due to privacy regulations, marketers have to be innovative in their approach to gathering valuable data. Welcome to contextual targeting – being at the right place at the right time, without the hassle of cookies and tracking. Leave it to the others!

Avoid Website Blacklisting with Whois History Search, Domain Research Suite, and Other Tools

Now and then, users encounter warnings that deter them from accessing certain sites. These warnings include:

• The site contains malware
• Deceptive site ahead
• Your connection is not private
• Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer

Most users would close their browsers or go back to the search results to find another website. If you’re the site’s owner, that means fewer visitors and lost business opportunities.

Studies show that 95% of users who run across blacklist warnings on sites do not proceed. This number represents a massive amount of lost organic traffic that impacts site owners’ sales, especially if they mainly rely on their website to sell goods or offer digital services.