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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Trade Sanctions Cited in Hundreds of Syrian Domain Seizures

Summary: Network Solutions and its parent Web.com took control of more than 700 domains used mostly for sites hosted in Damascus, all within a three- to four-day period in mid-April, changing each registration record to Web.com's Florida address with the notation "OFAC Holding." The seized domains included syrian-es.com, syrian-es.net and syrian-es.org, belonging to the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army, and most of the 700+ domains were hosted at Internet addresses assigned to the Syrian Computer Society. Treasury spokesman John Sullivan said OFAC had not contacted Web.com or Network Solutions about the sites, and that the general license for personal communications does not authorize web hosting or domain registration services.

Key Takeaway: A registrar can revoke hundreds of domains on its own reading of sanctions rules, and Treasury's own spokesman says his office never called - so the enforcement trigger here was a private company's judgment, not a government order. For any security leader with infrastructure tied to a sanctioned or geopolitically exposed region, the question is who can pull your domains and on what authority.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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