The number of coronavirus-related domains registered in October almost doubled compared to September: 100 new domains appeared in September, including 94 in .RU and six in .РФ, compared to 185 new domains registered in October (164 in .RU and 21 in .РФ).
As before, most of the new domains (134) contain some reference to the virus name, another 33 are associated with vaccination, and only 10 domain names are associated with testing. October saw a relatively large number of domain names associated with QR codes (36 such domains in .RU) or associated with public services via QR codes, certificates and checks (39 domain names in .RU).
In total, 1,343 domains (1,171 in .RU and 172 in .РФ) have been added to the list of domain names containing the words “corona,” “covid,” “pandemia,” “coronavirus,” “pandemic,” “vaccine” and others since the beginning of 2021 (from January to October).
The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ continues to monitor the rate of coronavirus-related registrations in the Russian ccTLDs .RU and .РФ. The task of the monitoring is to identify potentially dangerous domains and mitigate possible harm from them.
If you have been impacted by visiting websites or reading emails with phishing domain names, including those related to the coronavirus, then we advise you to contact the hotline of an accredited internet security organization. Hotline numbers are available on the website of the Coordination Center's internet security project, Domain Patrol. It also publishes news from the cyber-security industry, useful instructions on dealing with cyber threats, and rules of safe online behavior.
