Many new top-level domains used for malicious activity

Blue Coat, a company that develops network security software, recently published a report on the amount of shady activity associated with top-level domains (TLDs) on the Internet. Examples of TLDs are .com, .net, and country-specific domains like .ca and .us.

A few years ago, a new batch of TLDs was introduced, including .zip, .review and .country. At the time, ICANN said the changes would “unleash the global human imagination.” Well, as was widely predicted, many of those new TLDs are apparently being used almost exclusively in connection with all kinds of malicious activity. Apparently it was mostly the imagination of criminals that was unleashed.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *