Why is .US Being Used to Phish So Many of Us?
Summary: Interisle Consulting Group's study of six million phishing reports between May 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023 found 30,000 .US phishing domains, even though the .US registry is overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and managed under contract by GoDaddy, which is supposed to verify that registrants have a U.S. nexus. Interisle found .US domains used to attack Bank of America, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Citi, Comcast, Microsoft, Meta, Target, and at least 109 were used against the U.S. Postal Service and its customers, while GoDaddy's registration flow auto-populates the nexus attestation with "I am a citizen of the US" and a .US domain costs $4.99.
Bottom line: The country-code domain the U.S. government oversees is cheap, self-attested, and was used in 30,000 phishing domains in a single year, including 109 aimed at the U.S. Postal Service and its customers.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Related
- Upcoming Speaking Engagements Cyber Risks · Nov 14, 2026Friday Squid Blogging: Pacific Flying Squid Populations Dropping in Korean Waters Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026AI Doesn’t Have to Go Rogue to Break the World Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026