In the world of cybersecurity, even small configuration oversights can lead to big problems. One such often-overlooked issue is dangling DNS records – DNS entries that point to resources that have been moved or decommissioned but were never removed from the DNS. In simple terms, these are stale DNS records still lingering in your configurations. They may seem harmless, but dangling DNS records can open the door for attackers to hijack your subdomains, impersonate your organization’s services, or intercept sensitive communications. For public sector agencies and IT administrators responsible for critical domains, ignoring DNS hygiene can have serious security implications. In this article, we explain what dangling DNS records are, why they are dangerous, and how to resolve and prevent them from a security perspective.

Our previous articles on Cloudflare have highlighted how the company's global infrastructure can, paradoxically, protect cybercriminals and how Cloudflare's own processes fall short when it comes to dealing with abuse. We have seen that Cloudflare's free platforms for pages and scripts are widely used for phishing and spreading malware, and that abuse reports are often met with automatic rejections instead of swift action. Critics have pointed to a ‘blind spot’ at Cloudflare: that the company's enormous reach and business model sometimes outweigh proactive security.

Cloudflare sits behind one in five websites, promising speed, and security. But the same infrastructure now hides an industrial scale phishing economy. For six (6) months we tracked more than +600 fake tiquetesbaratos.com fraud domains - multiple hosted on pages.dev or workers.dev and fraud domains levering the Cloudflare reverse-proxy DNS services. Abuse reports met the same copy paste dismissal: “Unable to confirm phishing.” This article investigates why Cloudflare’s processes fail, how that failure fuels criminals, and what lawmakers must do next.

In today’s evolving cyber threat landscape, email remains the most exploited attack vector. Business Email Compromise (BEC), phishing, spoofing, and impersonation attacks continue to surge, targeting enterprises, customers, and supply chains alike. As organizations strengthen their perimeter defence’s, securing the email channel has become not just a compliance requirement - but a critical business enabler. This is where DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) plays a pivotal role.

Cloudflare’s global content‑delivery and security network protects more than 30 million Internet properties. Yet the very features that shield legitimate sites -reverse‑proxy DNS, free developer platforms and low‑friction onboarding - also cloak phishing kits, malware command‑and‑control servers and extremist forums. 

Cybercrime is Booming: The past year has seen an unprecedented surge in cybercrime activity, much of it underpinned by domain name abuse. The total number of malware, phishing, and spam attacks grew by 54% year-over-year to reach 16.3 million incidents, with threat actors weaponizing an estimated 8.6 million unique domain names for these attacks.

What is new since Excedo’s October 2024 primer on KYC for domain name registrants? Why Article 28 still matters.

The cybersecurity landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, driven by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. Traditional network security tools such as firewalls and antivirus software, while still important, are increasingly outpaced by sophisticated, AI-powered threats that can adapt and evolve in real-time. To stay safe in this landscape, organisations need advanced threat intelligence capabilities to identify, prevent, and respond to emerging threats before they can cause significant damage.

The rise of AI in cybersecurity has created a paradigm shift: while AI empowers attackers to create more sophisticated threats, it also enables defenders to develop more effective threat intelligence systems. This dynamic has made threat intelligence an essential component of modern cybersecurity strategy.

In today's digital landscape, a brand's online presence extends far beyond a single website. Enterprises typically maintain numerous digital touchpoints, including multiple websites, mobile applications, web applications, and APIs that connect numerous services and systems. While this digital ecosystem enables efficient operations and enhanced customer experiences, it also presents an expanded attack surface that cybercriminals actively exploit. The cost of such exploitation can be extremely high. Beyond the immediate financial losses of a successful attack, which averaged $4.35 million per data breach in 2022, organisations can also face long-term reputation damage, loss of customer trust, regulatory penalties, and potential legal liabilities if they do not properly protect themselves.

Taking down an abusive domain is not as simple as it may appear. You can always report abuse, but this does not always mean the domain will be taken down or preventive actions will be taken to avoid further abuse. An expert ensures the many challenges that can arise in the process are dealt with quickly and efficiently to protect your brand.

The impact of AI across industries is undeniable and it will only grow as AI develops further. However, just as AI has the potential to increase the efficiency of many processes and tasks, it can also increase the efficiency and scale of cyberattacks. To stay protected, security must adapt to these evolving threats.

Domain registrars that allow domains to be registered without any kind of identification required make it very easy for cybercriminals to commit crimes in complete anonymity. Unfortunately, there are many of these rogue registrars around and they are endangering businesses and people by not implementing industry standards and best practices.

The NIS2 Directive places new requirements on domain name registrars to get accurate information on registrants in order to minimise the anonymity that enables cybercrime.

Excedo's mission has always been to protect businesses and people online. This requires a holistic approach covering everything from email security and domain management to threat intelligence.

The NIS2 Directive will raise digital security levels across the EU. Although its jurisdiction spans across borders, individual countries have a say in how the requirements will be implemented locally and if they want to go above and beyond the security baseline set by NIS2.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks threaten the availability of essential services and systems worldwide. The first step to protection is to understand what these attacks look like and what vulnerabilities they exploit.