Recent spike in malicious phishing concentrated in two registrars

Summary  Record Highs in NetBeacon MAP Data In March 2025 we observed two record highs in NetBeacon Measurement and Analytics Platform (MAP) data: the highest number of unique domain names associated with phishing (47,613), and the largest month-on-month increase in unique domain names associated with phishing (63%). See Figure 1: Aggregate Trends — Phishing. Most […]

How have the gTLD contractual amendments impacted DNS Abuse?

Overview   In this context, DNS Abuse is defined as malware, botnets, phishing, pharming, and spam (when spam serves as a delivery mechanism for the other forms of DNS Abuse). This was a tremendous achievement. ICANN, the participating registries and registrars, and the ICANN community all deserve recognition for this work. These new obligations include […]

Update on GAC Communiqués and Community Activity on DNS Abuse

This blog and the associated report aim to provide an overview of DNS Abuse-related issues raised by the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), a key part of ICANN’s multistakeholder model. We summarize relevant community activity that addresses these areas and highlight remaining gaps where further work is needed. This report is an updated version of our […]

Reflections on a Year of Publishing Registrar and TLD Abuse Rates

In June 2023, after ten months of publishing general DNS Abuse trends at the aggregate level, we published our first report listing high and low abuse rates per Domains Under Management (DUM) and new registrations for registrars and TLDs, which we refer to as Specific Reporting.  Our DNS Abuse reporting methodology focuses on counting unique […]