Thu, 18th Nov 2008

Domain name registrars and hosting companies may often find that they are unwittingly providing facilities for phishing.

Having access to timely, professionally validated alerts when phishing sites are deployed using their infrastructure is operationally efficient and responsible for both registrars and hosting companies, and an important part of preserving their company's reputation.

Netcraft produces a continuously updated phishing feed that is very widely used. At least three separate third party studies have found it to be the most comprehensive feed available.

Phishing sites are submitted to the feed by the Netcraft Toolbar community. Reporters range from individuals submitting phishing mails that they have personally received, to specialist security researchers and several of the largest banks and financial payment systems. All submissions are carefully validated before being added to the feed.

Over the last six months Netcraft has blocked over 110,000 distinct phishing sites [Apr - Oct 2008].

Registrars, hosting providers and ISPs are able to provide a footprint of their IP addresses, name servers and WHOIS servers, such that when we validate a phishing report, they receive an alert if the phishing site is using any aspect of their infrastructure.