According to SecureList.com there is one group that is taking to the new gtlds, that group is spammers. Stating that spammers and cybercriminals have found the new strings to be an excellent tool to promote illegal campaigns.
It is a pretty extensive article that is filled with examples, I am sure this will rally the anti new gtld participants to say, “We told you so” I am sure the pro new g crowd will see it as propaganda or a paid piece. SecureList is published by Kaspersky Lab.
From the article:
Spammers and cybercriminals were quick to react: for them new domains are an excellent tool for promoting illegitimate campaigns. As a result, new domain zones almost immediately became an arena for the large-scale distribution of advertising spam, phishing and malicious emails. Cybercriminals either registered domains to spread spam mass mailings, hacked existing sites to place spam pages, or used these and other web resources in chains that redirect users to spam sites.
According to our observations, email traffic in Q1 2015 saw a considerable increase in the number of new domains that sent out spam of different content. In general there wasn’t much connection between the theme of the spam and the domain name, but in some cases there was an evident logical connection between them. For example, emails sent from the .work domains contained offers to carry out various types of work such as household maintenance, construction or equipment installation. Many of the messages from the .science domains were advertising schools that offer distance learning, colleges to train nurses, criminal lawyers and other professionals.
Read the full article on Secure List
Well, the key factor in .work and .science is .cheap as .chips, a useful factor when you may need multiple throwaway domains. Any cheap/free domain will do, especially if they are yet to be tarnished.
That really doesnt support the anti or pro side for the GTLD program as it is an existing issue.
Think the article is pretty clear that spammers and cyber criminals are those delighted by these new cheap domains like KT pointed out Icann should put a stop to free domains so there definitely is an issue here.
All new extension operators that give away free domains should get serious fines from ICANN. These extensions can ruin that whole new gtld industry. What new extensions need is trust and credibility. If people start to get scammed from websites that use new gtlds this will ruin the whole business and not only that particular tld. ICANN should do something to stop free domains. Plus, free domains help only the scammers. Domain “investors” that rush to register them won’t renew 99,9% of these domains, so, no real benefit for them.
.work is a very useful string both for developers and *sigh* spammers. But .work has fair pricing on their domains.. and I think it is one of the best ngtld names. Although on one hand this is bad news. On the other hand, it points out how .work should and will be used for anything work related. I like this string the best.
The second best string so far is .club.
.work and .club are both great with a lot of uses. Both are cheap and have fair pricing. My 2c as an old school web developer, who generally prefers .com, but has grown a soft spot in my heart for .club and .work
Also from the article:
“Meanwhile we are still seeing well-known .com, .org, .info, etc. used as domain zones as well as ones from the New gTLD program.”
Some registries are spamming too.
It’s no wonder their customers feel entitled to do the same.
Spamming and phishing are important issues that the public needs to be educated on. However, pinning these preexisting issues on new gTLDs is merely a spin tactic and will do nothing to resolve it.
Nowhere in this report do I see any hard data that would suggest new gTLDs are more prone to spamming or abusive behavior than legacy gTLDs. According to SecureList.com’s own numbers, the percentage of spam in email traffic has decreased 9.1% from Q3 of 2013 to Q1 of 2015. The report also states: “We are still seeing well-known .com, .org, .info, etc. used as domain zones as well as ones from the New gTLD program.”
Even more, according to Architelos legacy gTLDs have over 1.85M abusive domains listed on blocklists from over 155M total domains as of year-end 2014. In comparison, new gTLDs had just over 12,000 abusive domains listed on blocklists from over 3.7M total domains during the same period. So at the end of 2014, new gTLDs had 1/4 the level of abuse found in legacy gTLDs.
The facts show new gTLDs are safe and secure, don’t let propaganda influence you otherwise.
Hmm, now this explains why I’ve seen the sudden rash of spam getting through my filter. I noticed these SPAMs have the extension of these new TLD’s. Time for RBL’s to play catch-up.
Cheers!