Research by Spamhaus has driven the development of the new Zero Reputation Domain service designed to thwart cyber criminals who use newly-registered domains to send spam and drive traffic to harmful websites hoping that users will fall victim before a domain has been analysed for its reputation.

Legitimate organisations will rarely activate a domain and start using it immediately after registration so the ZRD automatically adds newly-registered and previously dormant domains to a blocklist for 24 hours. This protects users from clicking on links and visiting domains until it can be firmly established that they are not associated with zero day attacks, phishing, bot-herding, spyware and ransomware campaigns. The ZRD blocklist is already proving its worth in a pilot with a UK-based email security service provider.

“After enabling the Spamhaus ZRD, I immediately saw a reduction in the amount of spam that needed expensive content scanning by around 33% as we could reject it outright.”

“Normally I would get quite excited at something that reduced this by approximately 10% and the ZRD varies by day between to around 20-30% and those are unique hits which are not caught by other lists, so it’s pretty incredible.”

It’s also hitting exactly what I hoped it would – domains that are registered and used in spam immediately that have been difficult to catch.”

Existing Spamhaus users can enable ZRD as a Data Query Service by contacting their usual local re-seller.

Users who are new to Spamhaus can sign up for a free 30-day trial (Link to https://www.spamhaustech.com/free-trial/)

ZRD complements existing Content Blocklists generated by Spamhaus’ global team of security researchers who maintain constantly updated domain-based blocklists using data compiled from a range of live sources.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial

Related Products

Data Query Service (DQS)

Spamhaus’ Data Query Service (DQS) is an affordable and effective solution to protect your email infrastructure and users.

Using your existing email protection solution, you will be able to block spam and other related threats including malware, ransomware, and phishing emails.

The service has never failed and utilizes the longest established DNSBLs in the industry.

  • Proactive & preventative
  • Save on email infrastructure & management costs
  • Actionable

Resources

Spamhaus Quarterly Domain Reputation Update – Q3 2022

20 October 2022

Report

We bear good news regarding domain name abuse: almost all numbers are down compared to last quarter! See the Q3 trends and find the insight into some of the tactics used by bad actors and advice to circumvent falling victim.

WEBINAR – Domain Hijacking, April 2020

5 May 2020

Event

Instances of domain hijacking are on the increase, and the fall out for victims can be significant. Join ISC and Matt Sith, from Spamhaus to discover how big a problem domain hijacking is and learn how to protect against it.

Email blocklists – buy cheap, buy twice!

29 October 2019

Blog

As IT budgets and resources are squeezed it's understandable to shop around, be it for hardware, software, or threat intelligence data, for that matter. But beware...not all email blocklists (DNSBLs) are equal.