.Info Domain Safer From Phishing Attacks

DUBLIN, IRELAND- 6 November 2008 – Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that a new Global Phishing Survey released by the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) reveals that the .INFO domain, managed and operated by Afilias, is now safer from phishing attacks. Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and financial information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic transaction.

The Global Phishing Survey shows that, during the first half of 2008, .INFO has the lowest phishing rate and the lowest average attack duration among the Internet’s generic top-level domains (gTLDs). The phishing rate is a standard measure of the number of detected phishing web sites for every 10,000 domains and indicates the level of use of a domain name for phishing. Attack duration measures the amount of time a fraudulent website remains online – the longer a phishing site stays online, the higher the ability to steal sensitive information from unsuspecting victims. .INFO’s attack durations were near the average among all gTLDs in the second half of 2007, so INFO is now even safer than it was in the past. 

This improvement began in January 2008, when Afilias implemented a vigorous anti-phishing program. The study results demonstrate the effectiveness of this program, with the average phishing attack durations in the .INFO domain reduced by almost 50%, ahead of all other gTLDs. Reduced attack durations provide greater protection to consumers and organizations that conduct online commerce, demonstrably reducing financial losses and the many other costs of identity theft.

“The results from the Afilias .INFO anti-phishing effort show that programs implemented by domain registries can effectively fight domain name abuses without outside regulation,” said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and CTO of Afilias. “The recently implemented .INFO Anti-Abuse Policy further adds to our ability to take effective and measured action to prevent abuse in the .INFO domain.”

The Global Phishing Survey analyzes the APWG phishing attack repository and other data sources comprising a comprehensive archive of phishing activity. It reports 47,324 phishing attacks in the first six months of 2008, hosted on 26,678 unique domain names. Phishing took place on domain names in 155 top-level domains (TLDs).

“The Global Phishing Survey demonstrates that criminals are targeting specific top-level domains and their registrars, and change their targets regularly,” said Greg Aaron, Director of Key Account Management and Domain Security at Afilias, and a co-author of the study.   “Identity theft and fraud are important issues for anyone who goes online, and criminals are using vulnerable top-level domains and registrars to steal identities and money. The .INFO experience indicates that active, self-regulated anti-abuse programs make a real difference in improving the safety of the Internet, and of the domain name space in particular.”

You can read the full survey at: http://www.apwg.org/reports/APWG_GlobalPhishingSurvey1H2008.pdf

About .INFO

.INFO is the most intuitive path to information on the Internet. It was the first unrestricted generic top-level domain (TLD) launched since .COM and today contains over 5 million registered domains and millions of live Web sites. For more information on .INFO please visit www.info.info.

About Afilias

Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications. Its Internet registry services support domains such as .INFO, .ORG, .aero, .mobi, .asia, as well as many country code domains such as .Me, .IN and others. Afilias also provides services in the RFID market with its Afilias Discovery Service, which enables real-time lookup of event histories across RFID networks. For more information on Afilias please visit www.afilias.info.