There are always a few scams out there that are aimed at small businesses. Many of them are for "SEO" services where they promise "incredible" results. It's a very good use of the word "incredible" as the claims are completely lacking in credibility. In the domain name world there have been a variety of scams doing the rounds for years. Remember Domain Registry of America … [Read more...] about Domain Scam Targetting Irish Small Business
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APWG Phishing Report Reveals Crimeware Increase
The APWG (Anti-Phishing Working Group) has released their report for Q4 of 2014. It makes for fairly depressing ready, as you'd expect, but it's worth taking the time to have a look over it. So which TLDs are most (ab)used in phishing and malware attacks? It's hardly surprising that .com is the most (ab)used (46%) - it's also the most popular domain extension. What is a … [Read more...] about APWG Phishing Report Reveals Crimeware Increase
NL Registry Introduces Phishing Alert Service
SIDN, the registry operator for .nl, has announced the introduction of a new service for its registrars. The new phishing alert service harnesses data provided by Netcraft and will automatically email the registrar of record of any .nl domain name that is flagged as being used in a phishing attack.Every five minutes or so, SIDN checks Netcraft's suspect URL database,which is … [Read more...] about NL Registry Introduces Phishing Alert Service
IDN Scaremongering – Mashable and Times Online Screw Up
IDNs might be a slightly "hot" topic at the moment following on from ICANN's launch of the IDN cctld program recently.However, IDNs are NOT a new topic.Far from it.They've been around for quite some time.Unfortunately neither The Times Online or Mashable seem to have done any homework. Considering the amount of content available on IDNs that has been researched and actually … [Read more...] about IDN Scaremongering – Mashable and Times Online Screw Up
McAfee Report Not Good For IE ccTLD
Anti-virus vendor McAfee have released their second report on Malware (pdf) which tracks incidences of malware on a TLD basis.The previous report, which received a lot of press coverage, was very favourable for several ccTLDs, including .ie (Ireland).This time round the Irish ccTLD may not be listed in the "dangerous" list, but the threat levels have practically doubled! This … [Read more...] about McAfee Report Not Good For IE ccTLD
Nominet Issues Spoofing Warning
In common with many domain registries Nominet relies heavily on email for communication to registrars AND registrants.Unfortunately they seem to have been the target of some spoofing in recent daysIt sounds like they've been the victims of a "Joe Job", where a spammer basically "hijacks" a person or organisation's domain when sending mails.More information is available on the … [Read more...] about Nominet Issues Spoofing Warning
ICANN To Axe Add Grace Period – Domain Tasting On Its DeathBed
Domain tasting in its current form may soon become a thing of the past.The blogs and mailing lists have been buzzing for most of today following on from ICANN's announcement that they were going to try and axe the AGP (Add Grace Period) which has been abused by registrars.While initially it wasn't 100% clear when the change would come into effect a press release from ICANN in … [Read more...] about ICANN To Axe Add Grace Period – Domain Tasting On Its DeathBed
MSN Blocking .info?
According to recent reports Microsoft's MSN messenger is blocking URLs using the .info extension It seems that this change only happened in the last couple of days. Has Affilias been made aware of this change? Is it an anti-phishing / anti-spam measure? Full story here … [Read more...] about MSN Blocking .info?
Registrars Resorting To Comment Spam? TodayNic Using Dodgy Marketing
The competition between the various ICANN accredited registrars has been tough for quite some time. All you need to do is look at the pricing being offered by some of the companies, along with the various other enticements they use to attract new registrants and resellers, to get an idea of how tough the market has become. However I never thought I would see an ICANN … [Read more...] about Registrars Resorting To Comment Spam? TodayNic Using Dodgy Marketing
AU Deregulation Bad?
One of the strongest selling points of a regulated ccTLD is security and peace of mind. What that translates into in practice is that there is a slightly higher degree of control over who gets to register domains. In Ireland, for example, the IEDR has been able to vaunt the IE ccTLD due to its positive results in a recent McAfee siteadvisor survey. The same study gave a very … [Read more...] about AU Deregulation Bad?