WhoisXML API Blog

Black Hat 2024: Key Takeaways and Trends

WhoisXML API representatives were among the more than 20,000 security professionals from 117 countries who gathered at Black Hat 2024 held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on 3–8 August 2024.

The annual conference once again delivered on its promise of showcasing the latest security advancements and exposing emerging threats. As our team continues to absorb the valuable insights gained from Black Hat 2024, we put into writing this recap to capture the key themes and highlights of the conference.

July 2024: Domain Activity Highlights

The WhoisXML API research team analyzed more than 7.3 million domains registered between 1 and 31 July 2024 in this post to identify five of the most popular registrars, top-level domain (TLD) extensions, and other global domain registration trends.

We also determined the top 5 TLD extensions used by the more than 58.1 billion domains from our DNS database’s A record full file released in July 2024.

Next, we studied the top 5 TLDs and associated threat types of more than 1 million domains detected as indicators of compromise (IoCs) in the same month.

Finally, we summed up our findings and provided links to the threat reports produced using DNS, IP, and domain intelligence sources during the period.

What Are the Priorities for the U.S. Administration Cybersecurity Spending in 2026?

The White House has laid out a road map on how executive departments and agencies should plan to spend their cybersecurity dollars in the coming years. On 10 July 2024, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memorandum outlining the administration’s cybersecurity investment priorities. The memo intends to guide relevant government entities as they prepare their 2026 budget submissions to the OMB.

The U.S. government is taking a page out of its own National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) playbook, wrapping its investment priorities around five pillars to improve the country’s cybersecurity posture, namely:

Making Email Security Smarter with Domain Intelligence

More than 4 billion people checking their emails daily represents a goldmine for attackers. No wonder phishing remains one of the biggest threats today, pushing email security to the top of organizations' cyber priorities.

But here's the kicker—90% of malicious emails can slip through email security standards, such as the Sender Policy Framework (SPF); the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM); or Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC).

While many email security providers are out there, those offering a multilayered approach can offer more.

Introducing Server-to-Server OAuth to Secure API Integrations

We’re thrilled to announce the availability of Server-to-Server OAuth for all our API users. Using this authentication method helps developers build robust integrations without compromising security and efficiency.

Server-to-Server OAuth or two-legged OAuth eliminates user interaction for authentication, making it ideal for automated workflows. It simplifies API integration by allowing a server to directly request and manage access tokens. The authorization method is also designed to handle high-volume API requests, supporting application scalability.

Name Server Concentration: Who Controls the Domain Name System?

Name servers (NSs) play a crucial role in how the Internet works, directing traffic to the correct destinations. Specifically, NS records tell recursive resolver servers which authoritative NS is responsible for a specific domain name. The resolver would then contact the authoritative NS to obtain the domain's corresponding IP address.

While having a small number of entities control a large portion of the DNS can increase efficiency, it could also result in choke points, where a single disruption could significantly impact a large portion of Internet traffic.

Domains Only Data Feed Is Now Available for Newly Registered Domains Ultimate Users

A new type of data feed has been made available for users with a Newly Registered Domains (NRD) Database Ultimate subscription, allowing them to obtain new domain intelligence faster. 

Specifically, the new Domains Only data feed gives access to files containing all domains from the Ultimate data feed, along with those added to or deleted from a given day’s zone files compared with the previous day.

WhoisXML API Data Is Now Available on ProjectDiscovery Subfinder

WhoisXML API is excited to announce a new integration with ProjectDiscovery, an open-source-led security company that specializes in the detection of new, exploitable vulnerabilities.

This new collaboration brings WhoisXML API's comprehensive subdomain data to ProjectDiscover's Subfinder, a tool designed to discover valid subdomains for any domain name through passive enumeration.

This integration further expands Subfinder's data coverage, enabling users to use WhoisXML API intelligence to perform thorough and accurate subdomain enumeration for asset discovery, penetration testing, bug bounty hunting, security assessments, threat detection, and other critical security processes.