Review of DNS traffic trends during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as an indicator of enterprise activity and possible DDOS events.

Domain names are normatively registered for one or more years, and faithfully renewed thereafter. Domains slated for abusive uses, however, are effectively disposable: they are registered, quickly abused for cybercrime, and abandoned. In this study, we monitor an ongoing data feed of newly observed domains (NOD) to generate a cohort data set, and periodically probe those names to determine what fraction of new domains get suspended by their registrar, deleted by the DNS provider, or effectively ‘killed’ by several well-known blocklists. We then analyse how quickly this happens, the most likely cause of domain ‘death’, and how this may vary depending on the TLD involved. The study provides the first systematic study of domain lifetimes, unravelling their complexities and showing the impact of blocklists on the new gTLDs. The results can be used to deploy more secure DNS policy rules in a computer network.

In this new research, Farsight Security selected the primary domain for nearly 4000 organizations, including leading global corporations and higher education institutions. We then tested those domains using key DNS indicators to assess adoption of emerging technologies and risk exposure.

In this new research report, Farsight Security set out to determine the prevalence and distribution of IDN homographs across the Internet. We examined 100M IDN resolutions over a 12-month period with a focus on over 450 top global brands across 11 sectors including finance, retail, and technology.

To lure unsuspecting consumers to fake websites to purchase counterfeit goods, cybercriminals abuse the Domain Name System (DNS) – every day, every hour, every minute. In this report, “Luxury Brands, Cheap Domains: Why Retailers Are Losing The Fight Against Online Counterfeiting,” cybersecurity firms Farsight Security and DomainTools, the leaders in DNS intelligence, took a close look at four international luxury brand domains and learned that the potential abuse of their brand, by counterfeiting and other malicious activities, is significant.