Phishing Activity: Domain Registrars
Quarter over Quarter Comparison
November 1, 2020 - January 31, 2021
For purposes of observing change over time, it is useful to compare measurements and metrics over successive reporting periods. Such comparisons illustrate whether phishing activities are increasing or decreasing, and where such changes are occurring. Such comparisons can identify suspicious concentrations of phishing domains reported in registrar domain portfolios, and can identify registrars where phishers flock to purchase and manage phishing domains. Investigators or policy makers may focus on these for deeper analyses.
Table 1 uses the measurement reported phishing domains to compare the rankings of registrars during the August to October 2020 period to the ranking for the May to July 2020 period.
Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domains, Quarter over Quarter(November 2020 to January 2021)
Registrars with a minimum of 30,000 domains under management and 25 phishing domains
| Domains under Management | Number of Phishing Domains | ||||||||
| Rank | Registrar | IANA ID | August to October 2020 | November 2020 to January 2021 | August to October 2020 | November 2020 to January 2021 ▼ | |||
| 1 | — | NameCheap, Inc. | 1068 | 10,707,889 | 11,283,131 | (+5%) | 14,383 | 25,718 | (+79%) |
| 2 | ▲ +1* | NameSilo, LLC | 1479 | 3,531,106 | 3,434,955 | (-3%) | 7,434 | 8,456 | (+14%) |
| 3 | ▼ -1 | GoDaddy.com, LLC | 146 | 63,464,090 | 63,978,616 | (+1%) | 8,023 | 7,319 | (-9%) |
| 4 | — | PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com | 303 | 4,955,491 | 5,102,811 | (+3%) | 3,994 | 4,065 | (+2%) |
| 5 | ▲ +12 | Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. d/b/a HiChina (www.net.cn) | 1599 | 5,249,261 | 5,077,134 | (-3%) | 748 | 3,859 | (+416%) |
| 6 | ▲ +5 | Wild West Domains, LLC | 440 | 2,756,680 | 2,821,556 | (+2%) | 1,572 | 2,887 | (+84%) |
| 7 | ▼ -2 | Tucows Domains Inc. | 69 | 10,332,030 | 10,505,887 | (+2%) | 2,431 | 2,476 | (+2%) |
| 8 | ▲ +1 | Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc | 460 | 1,664,103 | 1,369,388 | (-18%) | 1,963 | 2,016 | (+3%) |
| 9 | ▼ -2 | Google LLC | 895 | 5,162,389 | 5,512,969 | (+7%) | 1,973 | 1,957 | (-1%) |
| 10 | ▲ +2 | eNom, LLC | 48 | 5,211,996 | 5,113,538 | (-2%) | 1,470 | 1,673 | (+14%) |
| 11 | ▼ -1 | GMO Internet, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com | 49 | 5,160,503 | 4,867,552 | (-6%) | 1,616 | 1,666 | (+3%) |
| 12 | ▼ -4 | Name.com, Inc. | 625 | 2,123,706 | 2,164,002 | (+2%) | 1,972 | 1,631 | (-17%) |
| 13 | — | Wix.com Ltd. | 3817 | 1,150,887 | 1,429,275 | (+24%) | 1,105 | 1,576 | (+43%) |
| 14 | ▲ +4 | Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Registrar.eu | 1647 | 876,214 | 1,036,508 | (+18%) | 694 | 1,431 | (+106%) |
| 15 | — | Register.com, Inc. | 9 | 1,702,919 | 1,698,442 | (-0%) | 993 | 1,255 | (+26%) |
| 16 | ▼ -10 | ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED | 3775 | 876,786 | 993,835 | (+13%) | 2,407 | 1,240 | (-48%) |
| 17 | ▼ -3 | Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co. Ltd. | 1469 | 709,071 | 642,425 | (-9%) | 1,085 | 1,128 | (+4%) |
| 18 | ▼ -2 | Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC | 1606 | 916,075 | 865,777 | (-5%) | 862 | 1,071 | (+24%) |
| 19 | ▲ +14 | BigRock Solutions Ltd. | 1495 | 278,105 | 270,612 | (-3%) | 276 | 769 | (+179%) |
| 20 | ▼ -1 | Internet Domain Service BS Corp | 2487 | 374,763 | 388,964 | (+4%) | 556 | 652 | (+17%) |
* Indicates change over prior quarter
Table 2 uses the metric phishing domain score to compare the rankings of registrars during the August to October 2020 period to the ranking for the May to July 2020 period.
Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domain Score, Quarter over Quarter (November 2020 to January 2021)
Registrars with a minimum of 30,000 domains under management and 25 phishing domains
| Domains under Management | Phishing Domain Score | ||||||||
| Rank | Registrar | IANA ID | August to October 2020 | November 2020 to January 2021 | August to October 2020 | November 2020 to January 2021 ▼ | |||
| 1 | ▲ +1* | TLD Registrar Solutions Ltd. | 1564 | 81,218 | 95,714 | (+18%) | 22.7 | 28.4 | (+25%) |
| 2 | ▲ +12 | BigRock Solutions Ltd. | 1495 | 278,105 | 270,612 | (-3%) | 9.9 | 28.4 | (+186%) |
| 3 | — | NameSilo, LLC | 1479 | 3,531,106 | 3,434,955 | (-3%) | 21.1 | 24.6 | (+17%) |
| 4 | N/R** | CNOBIN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED | 3254 | 21,262 | 39,515 | (+86%) | 17.9 | 23.3 | (+30%) |
| 5 | ▲ +3 | NameCheap, Inc. | 1068 | 10,707,889 | 11,283,131 | (+5%) | 13.4 | 22.8 | (+70%) |
| 6 | — | Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co. Ltd. | 1469 | 709,071 | 642,425 | (-9%) | 15.3 | 17.6 | (+15%) |
| 7 | — | Internet Domain Service BS Corp | 2487 | 374,763 | 388,964 | (+4%) | 14.8 | 16.8 | (+13%) |
| 8 | ▲ +15 | OpenTLD B.V. | 1666 | 37,991 | 36,023 | (-5%) | 6.8 | 16.4 | (+139%) |
| 9 | ▲ +3 | Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc | 460 | 1,664,103 | 1,369,388 | (-18%) | 11.8 | 14.7 | (+25%) |
| 10 | ▲ +11 | Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Registrar.eu | 1647 | 876,214 | 1,036,508 | (+18%) | 7.9 | 13.8 | (+74%) |
| 11 | — | Atak Domain Hosting Internet ve Bilgi Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi d/b/a Atak Teknoloji | 1601 | 77,586 | 98,701 | (+27%) | 12.4 | 13.8 | (+11%) |
| 12 | ▼ -3 | NETIM SARL | 1519 | 36,928 | 42,123 | (+14%) | 13.3 | 13.1 | (-2%) |
| 13 | ▲ +11 | MAT BAO CORPORATION | 1586 | 152,080 | 170,064 | (+12%) | 6.7 | 12.8 | (+90%) |
| 14 | ▼ -13 | ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED | 3775 | 876,786 | 993,835 | (+13%) | 27.5 | 12.5 | (-55%) |
| 15 | ▲ +1 | Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC | 1606 | 916,075 | 865,777 | (-5%) | 9.4 | 12.4 | (+31%) |
| 16 | ▼ -1 | Wix.com Ltd. | 3817 | 1,150,887 | 1,429,275 | (+24%) | 9.6 | 11 | (+15%) |
| 17 | ▲ +10 | Wild West Domains, LLC | 440 | 2,756,680 | 2,821,556 | (+2%) | 5.7 | 10.2 | (+79%) |
| 18 | — | Ligne Web Services SARL dba LWS | 1630 | 101,426 | 109,308 | (+8%) | 9.2 | 9.7 | (+6%) |
| 19 | ▼ -14 | Domainshype.com, LLC | 1660 | 35,093 | 36,054 | (+3%) | 15.7 | 8.6 | (-45%) |
| 20 | — | PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com | 303 | 4,955,491 | 5,102,811 | (+3%) | 8.1 | 8 | (-1%) |
* Indicates change over prior quarter
** Indicates not ranked in prior quarter; either domains under management or number of phishing domains did not meet minimum threshold for ranking
Comparisons of:
Activity in Domain Registrars