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Anti-Abuse Metrics

.ORG Anti-Abuse Metrics

One of the best things about the .ORG domain is that it consistently ranks highest from a quality standpoint, especially when it comes to abuse. PIR works hard to make sure that the .ORG name space is the cleanest domain space in the industry. When you choose a .ORG domain, you know you’re getting the highest quality domain possible. Check out our metrics and you’ll see how we rank and compare with other domains.

Abuse and Suspensions (through February 29, 2024)

DNS Abuse


Abuse Type 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
SPAM 17,604 6,208 16,991 18,861 22,427 5,408 121 75
PHISHING 54 2,696 22,959 6,677 5,996 4,446 3661 505
MALWARE 8 114 990 505 653 484 477 45
BOTNET C&C 1 73 550 350 278 132 1 0
Red Cross 5 1
OTHER* 25 12 31 53 115 14 5 0
ANNUAL TOTALS 17,692 9,103 41,434 26,466 29,469 10,484 4270 626
SUSPENDED BY REGISTRAR 1,601 384 1,652 1,887 1,660 1,341 778 135
SUSPENDED BY REGISTRY 9,160 1,809 4,982 3,094 5,478 1,503 434 85
TOTAL SUSPENSIONS 10,761 2,193 6,634 4,981 7,138 2,844 1212 219

* Hacking, Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, other technical abuses

A natural question from these statistics is: what is the difference between the total number of domains flagged as abusive and the number of domains PIR or the registrar acts upon? Many of the domains flagged for abuse are actually “compromised cases,” where the domains are initially registered for non-abusive purposes, but the registrant’s domain is put to abusive purposes without its consent. Suspension at the registry level is not the appropriate action to deal with a compromised domain; instead the registrar or host should work to get control of the domain back into the registrant’s hands. Additionally, sometimes domains are flagged as abusive by Reputation Block Lists (RBLs) but then “un-flagged” for a variety of reasons.

 

Court Ordered Actions on Domains (through February 29, 2024)

Court Ordered Law Enforcement Actions – Botnets

(Botnet domains either suspended or seized by Law Enforcement Agencies)


Year Number of Domains
2017 30,267
2018 13,927
2019 13,694
2020 86,240
2021 0
2022 0
2023 0
2024 YTD 0

 

Court Ordered Law Enforcement Actions – Non-Botnets

(Non-Botnet domains either suspended or seized by Law Enforcement Agencies)


Year Number of Domains
2017 30
2018 2
2019 1
2020 2
2021 14
2022 0
2023 50
2024 YTD 0

 

Court Ordered Civil Intellectual Property Enforcement


Year Number of Domains
2017 534
2018 1,128
2019 391
2020 91
2021 150
2022 56
2023 101
2024 YTD 21

 

Suspensions for Limited Categories of Website Content Abuse (through February 29, 2024)

 

Child Sexual Abuse Material

 

Opioid Websites

(Sites that are dedicated to distribution of opioids online)


Year Number of Domains
2019 3
2020 0
2021 0
2022 4
2023 0
2024 YTD 0

 

Other Limited Content

(This category includes incitement to violence, domains dedicated to fake Covid-19 “cures,” sites dedicated to the buying and selling of stolen credit card information, etc.)


Year Number of Domains
2020 20
2021 9
2022 1
2023 1
2024 YTD 0