Cambridge, Mass. and San Francisco, Oct. 24, 2018 – A joint APWG-M3AAWG survey of cybercrime responders and anti-abuse personnel indicates ICANN’s Temporary Specification for domain name WHOIS data has eliminated interventions that previously allowed investigators to stop new cybercrimes while still in the preparatory stages -- and has markedly impeded routine mitigations for many kinds of cybercrimes. The survey was submitted to ICANN on Oct. 18 by the Anti-Phishing Working Group and the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group.

With responses from 327 professionals, the survey revealed that losing the ability to attribute domain names to criminals or victims of abuse has irreparably eliminated their capacity to issue warnings about new abuses that known bad actors are perpetrating, even when the WHOIS registrant data is pseudonymous, according to Peter Cassidy, APWG Secretary General.

ICANN’s Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data, established in May in response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), impedes investigations of cybercrime – from ransomware attacks to distribution of state-sponsored strategic disinformation. Analyses of responses from the survey reveal that:

• Cyber-investigations and mitigations are impeded because investigators are unable to access complete domain name registration data.
• Requests to access non-public WHOIS by legitimate investigators for legitimate purposes under the provisions of the Temp Spec are routinely refused.

“The biggest impact has been to determine who has registered a criminal/fraudulent domain, and the ability to use that information to find other domains registered by the same actor. That devastates our ability to find all of the fraudulent domains registered by the same entity,” one typical respondent wrote in the APWG-M3AAWG GDPR and WHOIS User Survey report.

APWG and M3AAWG concluded their analysis with recommendations for ICANN to:

• Establish a mechanism for WHOIS data access by accredited, vetted qualified security actors.
• Restore redacted WHOIS data of legal entities.
• Adopt a contact data access request specification for consistency across registrars and gTLD registries.
• Establish a WHOIS data access scheme that does not introduce delays in collecting or processing and is not burdened by per-request authorizations.
• Reassess the current redaction policy and consider replacing restricted personal data with secure hashes that can be used as a proxy for tracing criminal actors across data resources.
• Publish point of contact email addresses to provide investigators with an effective means of identifying domains associated with a victim or person of interest in an investigation.

The full survey can be found at http://www.m3aawg.org/WhoisSurvey2018-10.  

About the APWG

The APWG (www.apwg.org), founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is the global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition focused on unifying the global response to electronic crime. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs and Telcos, the law enforcement community, solutions providers, multi-lateral treaty organizations, research centers, trade associations and government agencies. There are more than 2,200 companies, government agencies and NGOs participating in the APWG worldwide.

APWG advises hemispheric and global trade groups and multilateral treaty organizations such as the European Commission, the G8 High Technology Crime Subgroup, Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Europol EC3 and the Organization of American States. APWG is a member of the steering group of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative at the Commonwealth of Nations.

About M3AAWG

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M3AAWG (www.m3aawg.org) members represent more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. It also works to educate global policy makers on the technical and operational issues related to online abuse and messaging. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., M3AAWG is driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

Media Contacts

Anti-Phishing Working Group
Peter Cassidy, 617-669-1123
pcassidy@apwg.org

M3AAWG (Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group)
pr@m3aawg.org