
Of the 122 domains, only one had an identifiable registrant email address. The rest of the remaining NRDs were spread across 19 other registrars as shown in the following chart.Ĭhart 2: Bulk look-alike domain volume by registrar Dynadot LLC was the top registrar for the domains, accounting for 31 of them. Only 122 had retrievable WHOIS records. Subjecting the 314 domains to a bulk WHOIS lookup showed that: META DOMAINER REGISTRATION
Chart 1: Bulk look-alike domain volume breakdown by registration date Take a look at the chart below for the breakdown by registration date. A majority of these domains (270 to be exact) were registered on 25 October. We began our investigation by downloading the typosquatting data feeds for the week of 25-31 October 2021, which coincided with Zuckerberg’s announcement.Ī total of 314 newly registered domains (NRDs) containing the string “meta” were registered during the period. The data we collated and analyzed to come up with the findings above is available for download here.
5,555 NRDs containing the string “meta” were registered between 28 October and 3 November 2021, a week after the announcement was made.
54 subdomains containing the string “facebook + meta” were registered between 28 October and 15 November 2021. Dynadot LLC is the registrar of a majority of the Meta NRDs. 270 of the 314 newly registered domains (NRDs) were created on 25 October 2021.
A total of 314 domains containing the string “meta” were registered on 25-31 October 2021. Our deep dive brought these findings to light: Given the change that is set to further change the social media landscape, are we bound to see threats taking advantage of the Facebook rebranding? We sought to find out by looking at the NRD scene. According to Zuckerberg, “Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, on 28 October in Connect 2021, introduced Meta, which will be Facebook’s parent company, along with the organization’s various apps and technologies.