How the Industry Takes Action: Accountability and Evidence
Article publication date: 27 August 2024.
Last week, our team attended the 2024 Domain Summit in London where CleanDNS general counsel Alan Woods gave an insightful presentation on How the Industry Takes Action: Accountability and Evidence discussing trends and statistics in online harm mitigation.
CleanDNS monitors over 35-million domains across 600-plus TLDs, with an evidence-based approach to abuse mitigation, meaning we highly encourage reports to be submitted with evidence such as screenshots of abuse, malware hashes, email headers, third-party verification sites, and code. Through a snapshot of statistics pulled directly from CleanDNS’ 2023 abuse data, Woods’ presentation discussed key findings in the need for well-evidenced abuse reports, the average age of domains considered to be registered for abusive purposes, and more.
A key insight from the CleanDNS data of 2023, as discussed in last week’s presentation, was the average age (time since registration) of domains reported for abuse. On average within the previous year’s escalated abuse reports, CleanDNS found that a large portion of the domain determined to be registered for an apparent abusive purpose were less than 60 days old. In these cases, CleanDNS was able to mitigate many of the domains in less than 48-hours of their initial registration. Comparatively, CleanDNS saw that the average age of domains considered to have been compromised through an associated exploited service or platform was 7.6 years. For all escalated abuse reports, CleanDNS ensures that the report is escalated to the appropriate party, with a clear audit trail and documentation of actions taken.
With these statistics serving as a snapshot of trends in abuse management and online harm mitigation, the emphasis going forward remains on the importance of evidence, accountability, and actions taken by the appropriate party. He called for enhanced collaboration and better data sharing between the various layers of the internet, be that domain name providers, hosting companies, or online platforms or service providers. In the presentation closing, Woods emphasizes the importance of each member of the industry’s understanding of the role we each play in mitigating abuse, as well looking to the future for continued improvement of industry-wide efforts in fighting online harms. .
For questions about CleanDNS’ actionable, affordable, streamlined solution for abuse management and online harm mitigation, contact our team to learn more.