Dangerous Domains To Visit

Earlier this month, antivirus software vendor McAfee Inc. listed the most dangerous domains. McAfee has found that companies that assign addresses for Web sites appear to be cutting corners on security more when they assign names in certain domains than in others.

McAfee found the most dangerous domains to navigate to are ".hk" (Hong Kong), ".cn" (China) and ".info" (information).

Of all ".hk" sites McAfee tested, it flagged 19.2 percent as dangerous or potentially dangerous to visitors; it flagged 11.8 percent of ".cn" sites and 11.7 percent of ".info" sites that way.

In comparison, a little more than 5 percent of the sites under the ".com" domain — the world's most popular — were identified as dangerous.

Who owns these domain names and operates these sites? More spammers, malicious code writers and other cybercriminals like to establish an online presence with a domain name registry businesses that cuts requirements for registering a site in order to boost their profit and profile. The report doesn't identify domain name registration companies McAfee believes are responsible for those lapses.

There are domain registering companies offering their services on the cheap and with flimsy or no background checks to lure in more customers.


The domains that are populated with the highest concentration of risky sites.

• The servers for ".hk" and ".cn" Web sites don't have to be in China; Web site operators can register sites from anywhere to target different geographies.

• ".ro" (Romania), with 6.8 percent, and ".ru" (Russia), with 6 percent of sites flagged as dangerous.

The McAfee report is based on results from 9.9 million Web sites that were tested in 265 domains for serving malicious code, excessive pop-up ads or forms to fill out that actually are tools for harvesting e-mail addresses for sending spam.

Where McAfee found some of the least-risky domain names:

• ".gov" (government use), with 0.05 percent flagged;
• ".jp" (Japan), with 0.1 percent flagged and
• ".au" (Australia), with 0.3 percent flagged.

More Domain Names Coming......

The Board of ICANN has approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey, CEO of ICANN. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

"One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. "This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia." The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.


ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) . ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.
But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

New names likely won't start appearing until at least next year, and ICANN won't be deciding on specific ones quite yet. The organization still must work out many details, including fees for obtaining new names, expected to exceed $100,000 apiece to help ICANN cover up to $20 million in costs.


In other action is seeking to combat a loophole in registration policies that allow entrepreneurs to grab domain names risk-free for up to five days to see whether they generate enough traffic and advertising dollars. ICANN approved recommendations designed to clamp down on domain name tastin.

After the Domain Name, then what?

Think of a domain name as an address and your website or blog as the motor coach that you will park there. You can use the same address and get a new motor coach with a whole new look at any time. You just need to prepare for this by removing the old motor coach and reploacing it with a new one.
You need a website host. Blogger is a host. Registering a domain doesn't point visitors to your site until you assign or point that domain name to a location or host.
If you don't have a site yet, don't sweat it. A temporary parked page displays when visitors go to your Web site.

GoDaddy will make the contact information you listed for your domain public, per their registrar's agreement with ICANN (the international governing body of domain names). Using false information violates the registration agreement and leads to the termination of your domain registration.

It is advised that you spend a few bucks to get private domain registration services to help protect your privacy. When you purchase private domain registration services they will list the Domains By Proxy name, postal address, and phone number on the Whois directory.

You can:

• Cancel, sell, or transfer your domain registration.
• Revert the registrant listing for your domain registration back to you.
• Renew your domain registration when it expires.
• Designate the nameservers for your domain.
• Resolve claims arising out of a dispute involving your domain registration.

According to GoDaddy, DNS or Domain Name Server is the system that allows your Web site to display when users enter a domain in a Web browser. Nameservers are the Internet's equivalent to a phone book; they link the number to the name. The nameserver maintains a directory of domain names that match the IP addresses, or computers. Information from all nameservers on the Internet is compiled in a central registry, making it possible for people across the Internet to access your Web site using domain name.

What is a domain name?

Technically, a domain name is a part of a naming hierarchy co that corresponds to the network address or identifying IP address. Domain names are unique. When a company, such as GoDaddy sells domain names, they are selling a custom domain name which points to a designated address.

Why do you want a custom domain name?
The number one reason to get one is to get more traffic to your site.
If your site address is more memorable, it will be visited more often.

Domain names also offer credibility, especially to business.

Because they are unique, if someone wanted to use your domain name, they would have to pay you for the right to purchase it. Many domain name entrepreneurs are solely in the business of purchasing possibly wanted domain name with the intent that someone will pay big bucks to use it. They will "park" the domain name.

GoDaddy revolutionized the domain name industry. GoDaddy.com is the world's largest domain name registrar. Founded by Bob Parsons in 1997, The Go Daddy Group has grown to include more than 28.4 million domains under management.

As an ICANN-accredited domain registrar, Go Daddy has more names under management than any other registrar, offers products at prices up to 70% less than the competition and supports them all with world-class 24/7 live customer service.

What can you do with a domain name?

Sell it. Domains can be an investment. If you have registered a domain that you are not using, maybe someone else can. See your domain company for more information.

Protect your brand online. Prevent others from registering a similar domain to yours—just to steal away your customers and visitors. You may want to get your domain name in .org, .biz etc just to forward them to your main site.

Hold on to it. You can decide what to do with it whenever you want to.