Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

krebsonsecurity.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 220 posts

Re: Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

#2

Post by dmurray »

> new gTLDs introduced in the last few years command just 11 percent of the market for new domains, but accounted for roughly 37 percent of cybercrime domains reported between September 2023 and August 2024.

> .com and .net domains made up approximately half of all domains registered...they accounted for just over 40 percent of all cybercrime domains.

Hardly earth shattering. .net and .com are still pulling 80% of their weight when it comes to cybercrime. And the article concludes that the main reason the new TLDs are disproportionately used is because you can sometimes buy them cheap in bulk.

Maybe the real story here is that the ccTLD registrars, who weren't mentioned, are disproportionately good at deterring cybercrime.

Re: Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

#6

Post by runamuck »

lexicality wrote: post #3

Honestly the only "legitimate" use for these TLDs seem to be fediverse/bsky vanity URLs. Everything outside that just looks like a scam, even if it isn't.

Interesting! Now that you mention it, I did buy a .luxury domain for this purpose - a Gemini server. I also bought a .ski to have a domain with my (polish) last name.

Re: Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

#7

Post by xelamonster »

The implication that gTLDs are bad and new ones shouldn't be introduced because of this is a bit silly to me. The argument that they somehow have lower registration requirements makes no sense, .shop .top and .xyz registrations involve the exact same amount of verification as .com (none). Prices aren't really that different and plenty of gTLDs are more expensive than traditional ones.

Registering a domain is frustrating these days, too many already taken and a lot of them by squatters not even intending to use it. I'd love to see more options personally even if it makes it slightly easier to create a phishing domain. We need better tools than memorizing a domain name to deal with that anyways.

Re: Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

#9

Post by NotSammyHagar »

xelamonster wrote: post #7

The implication that gTLDs are bad and new ones shouldn't be introduced because of this is a bit silly to me. The argument that they somehow have lower registration requirements makes no sense, .shop .top and .xyz registrations involve the exact same amount of verification as .com (none). Prices aren't really that different and plenty of gTLDs are more expensive than traditional ones. Registering a domain is frustrat…

I think the issue is you can register a known company name on one of these and plenty of people will think it's legit. Companies have to register on all these random domain to protect themselves.

dell.shop, that's probably the dell computer I know, right?

Re: Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz

#10

Post by echoangle »

drummojg wrote: post #5

I have always thought the infinite proliferation of TLDs was a stupid idea. I'd be enlightened if I could think of one scenario that benefits from it outside of the registrars.

I would actually think that consumers (of domains) benefit more than the registrars, because there is more competition. If I want a specific word as a domain, there are multiple options of TLD for me.
Post reply on HN