Gandi is now detecting fraudulent domain names on blockchains.
Paris, 11 April 2024
Gandi.net, the French specialist in the registration of domain names, web hosting, email solutions and SSL certificates, announces that its preventive system that catches suspicious domain names has been extended to the blockchain network.
Businesses have now the possibility to protect their users against typosquatting[[1], on the so-called ‘decentralised’ domain names that do not belong to the Domain Name System (DNS) – domain names that are similar to NFTs and held in users’ wallets.
Frequently used by cyber-scammers for phishing attempts, typosquatting poses a big threat to brands as domains names and e-mail addresses with discreet differences such as: adding or omitting a letter, inverting two characters, replacing one character with another that resembles it etc… can cause reputation damage and financial losses. Victims of this practice are, of course, the deceived users, but also the brands that are the object of these hijackings: customers captured, eroded trust and above all a threat to security. For example CEO fraud emails, or even manipulation of stock market prices.
According to a recent report from Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, phishing was in 2023 the second most common reason for companies and associations to seek assistance, and the number one threat affecting individuals – more than 50,000 individuals and professionals sought assistance on this matter during the year.
In response to these threats, Gandi Corporate Services has developed a tool that alerts trademark holders to any registration of a new domain name that is clearly intended to mislead users or exploit a trademark. Every day, this software scans millions of domain names registered with the main registries, and automatically detects those that use a trademark and its variants, whether typographical variations (addition, omission or inversion of characters) or homoglyphs (replacement of one character by another that resembles it, or use of a different alphabet). The tool can also detect brand names mentionned in the sub-domain section.
This gives companies the opportunity to take necessary action, such as blocking e-mails from these domains from being sent to internal mailboxes to protect employees against spoofing attempts, or monitoring whether a site selling counterfeit goods has been created.
‘Our detection solution, through the diversity of its approaches and the scanning of nearly 300 million domain names and subdomains, enables us to detect a wide variety of non-legitimate domain names and therefore protect brands as closely as possible to their needs’, explains Yannick Grangé, Brand Monitoring Specialist at Gandi.
In addition to this monitoring service, Gandi Corporate Services offers its customers the opportunity to define a strategy for defensive registrations, and to assist trademark holders in the procedures for blocking or recovering these domain names.
About Gandi.net
Since 2012, Gandi has also been supporting large businesses as a strategic partner for domain management, domain protection, trademarks and online presence. Thanks to its dedicated offer, teams and Gandi Corporate Services.
This success is the result of 20 years of continuous investment and a quality of service focused on customer needs, with a strong emphasis on word-of-mouth. Today, this SME with 130 employees on 3 continents manages more than 2.5 million domain names for large companies and retail, while operating its own infrastructure from data centres located in France and Luxembourg. Its DNS quality and resolution are among the best in the industry. Its day-to-day work is based on strong values of quality, reliability and security, with a commitment from the outset to respect personal data.
[1] Typosquatting : registration of a fraudulent domain name, close to the legitimate domain and intended to mislead users of a given brand.