back to article .Science and .study: Domains of the bookish? More like domains of the JERKS!

The .science domain has become a “hotspots” of malicious or abusive activity on the internet, according to a new study out Tuesday. DNS-based cyber threat intelligence DomainTools found that .science had the highest concentration of bad domains, followed by .study and .racing. None of the 2017's most malicious generic Top …

  1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Could ICANN just do it properly, admit they're all about the money, and set up the following:

    .scam

    .phishing

    .junkmail

    .fakenews

    That should make everyone's lives easier, and of course increase their bonus pot - which is far more important.

    1. Pen-y-gors

      ICANN are making money, but so are the people who own the TLDs - by failing to remove dodgy TLDs are they not somehow complicit? And involved in a conspiracy to defraud, which tends to be illegal.

      In the case of .science we have "Famous Four Media (Domain Venture Partners) is a prominent applicant in ICANN's New gTLD Program. It has applied for 60 generic TLDs. In addition to its main headquarters in Gibraltar, the company also has operations in London and New York" (ICANNWiki)

      Surely the legal authorities in Gibraltar (or London, or NY) can kick a bit of buttock?

      1. gnasher729 Silver badge

        The legal authorities in Gibraltar will probably act as soon as Gibraltar is just an ordinary town in Spain.

        1. Danny 14

          Gibraltar wont go back to spain. The same way spain wont be stupid enough to jeopardise their tourist economy. Afterall, Mexico is getting just as cheap as a decent spanish holiday now.

  2. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

    .science is perhaps understandable

    Until mid 2015 registration was free. Since then, the price has varied from 49 cents to $16. It's currently $3.99, so perhaps the rate of crap registration will slow down.....

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: .science is perhaps understandable

      You seem unreasonably optimistic if these domains are being used for scamming then anything under a couple of thousand makes them cheap.

      ICANN should simply evaluate this vanity project and refuse to renew the majority of these stupid TLDs when they come up for it. Apart from tourism: .berlin, .bayern, .quebec, etc. the only one that looked useful was .club, though even that makes more sense wrapped by a country's TLD.

  3. IGnatius T Foobar
    Unhappy

    Block all email from vanity TLD's

    Spam got so bad that I ended up just blocking all email from vanity TLD's.

    blacklist_from *.info

    blacklist_from *.work

    blacklist_from *.ninja

    blacklist_from *.science

    blacklist_from *.rocks

    blacklist_from *.space

    blacklist_from *.top

    blacklist_from *.win

    blacklist_from *.stream

    blacklist_from *.website

    blacklist_from *.bid

    blacklist_from *.download

    blacklist_from *.today

    blacklist_from *.date

    blacklist_from *.trade

    blacklist_from *.party

    blacklist_from *.webcam

    1. Alan W. Rateliff, II

      Re: Block all email from vanity TLD's

      Yup... I was just about to post the same thing. I have yet to see a single legitimate email come from any of these TLDs to any of my customers.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Re: Block all email from vanity TLD's

        I used my first one last week. A new customer has a .plumbing domain. I work in the building services trade - though was a bit surprised as we're at the commercial end of things, and I'd have thought that TLD was more aimed at the bloke after a tradesmen to fix his boiler market.

  4. veti Silver badge

    In other news, water still wet

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that TLDs set up to scam people are being used by scammers. Whatever next?

  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    .cricket made the top ten?

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