Industry

Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief: 354.0 Million Domain Name Registrations in Q1 2023

Today, Verisign released the latest issue of The Domain Name Industry Brief, which shows that the first quarter of 2023 closed with 354.0 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of 3.5 million domain name registrations, or 1.0%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. more

DNS Snooping on Apple iOS 14 Zero-Click Spyware KingsPawn

Last year, several governments reportedly used the NSO Group's spyware Pegasus to exploit a zero-day vulnerability in WhatsApp to spy on journalists, opposition politicians, and dissidents via their mobile devices. Apple quickly addressed the issue by launching more powerful data protection features. more

When Marketing Vendors Get Attacked, Clients Suffer: Third-Party Risk Discovery in the DNS

Organizations get bombarded with countless attacks from every direction, including via their supply chain. FortifyData's recent record of the top third-party data breaches in 2023 brings to light how multidirectional threat sources can be. In one of the data breaches on the list, AT&T disclosed in March 2023 that threat actors accessed the information of approximately 9 million wireless accounts through the telecommunication company's marketing vendor. more

A Fake ID Marketplace under the DNS Lens

The concept of internationalization extends from the virtual to the physical realm. Many people wish to travel or even migrate to other countries at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, that's sometimes easier said than done given the many legal documents, including valid IDs, passports, and others required. more

Rogue Bulletproof Hosts May Still Be Alive and Kicking as DNS Intel Shows

Rogue bulletproof hosts are part and parcel of the cybercriminal market that is hidden deep underground. Without means to easily evade detection, attribution, and incarceration, many of today's cybercriminals would not be able to continue their malicious operations. more

Largest Social Media Creator, MrBeast, Relaunches His Official Merch Store on mrbeast.store

Avid philanthropist, entrepreneur, and creator, MrBeast, AKA Jimmy Donaldson, has switched his official merch store from shopmrbeast.com to the more intuitive mrbeast.store. He announced his move to the .Store domain in his most recent video, which garnered close to 70M views in less than 3 days. more

How the SVB and Credit Suisse Crash Was Reflected in the DNS

We've proven time and again that the effects of current events always extend to the DNS. Just last month, two big banks - the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse - collapsed. Financial experts said more banks may be bound to follow. more

Probing the DNS for Signs of XLoader Abuse

XLoader has been plaguing macOS users since it was first discovered in 2021. Back then, though, it only posed a threat to those who opted to install Java on their systems. more

DNS Abuse and Redirection: Enough for a New JS Malware to Hide Behind?

DNS abuse combined with redirection seems to be gaining popularity as a stealth mechanism. We've just seen Decoy Dog employ the same tactic. More recently, a still-unnamed JavaScript (JS) malware has been wreaking havoc among WordPress site owners by abusing Google Public DNS to redirect victims to tech support scam sites. more

Kimsuky: DNS Intel Gathering

The Kimsuky Group, believed to be a North Korea-based advanced persistent threat (APT) group active since 2013, struck again several times this year. They gained notoriety for launching spear-phishing attacks on targets to gain initial access.  more

The Makings of ADHUBLLKA According to the DNS

It's not uncommon for cybercriminals to tweak an existing piece of malware and then call it a new creation. We've seen that happen even in malware's earliest days. It's actually happening more and more these days, especially with the rise of the malware-as-a-service (MaaS) business model. more

Searching for Smishing Triad DNS Traces

Given the ubiquity of mobile phone usage, you'd think we'd all know by now how to tell legitimate from scammy text messages. Then again, cybercriminals are always on top of their game -- learning how the latest technologies work and finding ways to abuse them. more

RedHotel Attack Infrastructure: A DNS Deep Dive

We began our analysis by subjecting the domains identified as IoCs to Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) lookups. Those allowed us to uncover these WHOIS record findings. more

Detecting Possible Fraud Vehicles Specific to Latin America and the Caribbean

Although fraud is a global issue, some threats may be unique to certain regions. Accertify listed some subtrends specific to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), including those involving the airline and digital wallet industries. more

Decoy Dog, Too Sly to Leave DNS Traces?

Decoy Dog, a malware renowned for abusing the DNS, specifically by establishing command and control (C&C) via DNS queries, first reared its head most likely in early 2022. Given its sly nature, the DNS malware has been used to successfully steal data from organizations throughout Russia and other Eastern European nations. more