Beyond the URL: Decoding Domain Intelligence Threats in 2024

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, security teams face the immense challenge of evaluating over a hundred million newly observed domains registered each year. This episode dives into how analytical methods are providing crucial insights into domain intelligence threats. We explore techniques like domain attribute analysis to identify patterns used by threat actors, risk scoring to quantify the likelihood of a domain being malicious, and DGA detection to uncover domains generated by automated systems used in malware and botnets. We also discuss the importance of keyword and topic analysis for identifying domains used in credential harvesting, malware delivery, and scams, and how analyzing new TLDs and likeness to high-profile events helps spot emerging threats and deceptive tactics like typosquatting. Furthermore, we touch upon analyzing webpage attributes to understand attack infrastructure and using anomaly detection to investigate spikes in domain registrations. Ultimately, building a shared knowledge base and fostering community collaboration by sharing insights and observed techniques is essential for strengthening our collective defenses against external threats and making the internet safer. This episode draws insights from an analysis comparing 106 million newly observed domains from 2024 against a large reference set of known malicious domains.