ARTICLES

Phishing, or the use of fake emails and other communications in an attempt to trick unsuspecting users to divulge passwords and account numbers, also makes use of “phishing URLs,” or domain names that sound close to legitimate organizations but are actually criminal enterprises. And of course when victims view Web sites at these addresses, often after mistakenly typing the imposter URL for the correct one, victims may find a Web site that in many ways looks like the Web site they intended to visit, increasing the likelihood that visitors will type in personal information such as log-in IDs, passwords, and account numbers.

Suspicious Sites 
Clearly, it is in the interest of legitimate organizations to do everything they can to identify domain names (and in turn the associated Web Sites)that may be using slight variations on their company name, and domain name, to defraud customers. VeriSign, a company that operates Internet infrastructure that the world relies on every day, offers a service that provides information that can greatly assist such organizations in identifying fraudulent domain names and Web Sites.

As the global registry operator for the .com and .net generic Top Level Domain Names (gTLDs), VeriSign is under a contractual agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to update the .com and .net zone files (or master list of domain names) twice daily, and make it available for download once every 24 hours to third parties that enter into an access agreement with VeriSign. However, VeriSign updates the zone file in near real-time and can provide updates approximately every five minutes.  The ability to access these updates in a timely manner enables the development of innovative services by anti-phishing entities, brand monitoring companies, and other organizations interested in tracking changes to .com and .net DNS data.

Net Intelligence 
With VeriSign® Domain Name Zone Alerts, companies can access data that can be used to identify a new phishing site.  In turn, companies can then quickly pursue the actions necessary to shut down the fraudulent Web site, thereby protecting their customers and their brand. VeriSign Domain Name Zone Alerts are not only useful for combating phishing. Because VeriSign Domain Name Zone Alerts provide access to incremental updates associated with the .com and .net TLDs, including additions, deletions, and modifications of domain name registrations, name servers and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, they are also highly valuable to registrars, as a way to facilitate the administration of domain-name registrations.

For years, VeriSign infrastructure has been at the heart of the Internet. In support of the .com and .net gTLDs, VeriSign facilitates peak loads of more than 33 billion authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) queries in a single day, and VeriSign DNS has maintained operational accuracy and stability 100% of the time for the past decade, growing quickly and investing in its infrastructure to stay ahead of the growth of the Internet.

For more information about VeriSign Domain Name Zone Alerts, please visit the VeriSign Domain Name Zone Alert section of the VeriSign Web site, or call a VeriSign representative at (703) 925-6999.