Silent Night, Deadly Sites: How Christmas Cyber Threats Lurk in the DNS

For many people, Christmas is a time for gift giving, shopping, and merrymaking. And more often than not, they opt to make their purchases and reservations online. That’s where trouble, unfortunately, typically begins.

Many online offers and deals, especially those at unbelievably affordable prices, are either scams or threat vectors.¹

WhoisXML API collated 22,923 christmas domains from First Watch Malicious Domains Data Feed on 26 November 2024 and analyzed their DNS footprint. We uncovered:

• 1,331 email-connected domains
• 3,229 IP addresses, 2,529 of which turned out to be malicious
• 21,035 IP-connected domains, 96 of which turned out to be malicious
• 1,436 string-connected subdomains

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• [1] https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2023/11/28/holiday-season-increases-cybersecurity-risks/