The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ continues to monitor the speed of registration of .RU and .РФ domains related to COVID-19 and measures to hold down the pandemic.
In November, 295 coronavirus-related domains were added in .RU and 31 in .РФ. The total monthly increase amounted to 326 domains, or slightly over 80 domains per week. Compared with October, the speed of coronavirus-related domain registrations went up: 185 such domains were registered in October (164 in .RU and 21 in .РФ).
Registration of .RU and .РФ domains potentially related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Domain registrations related to COVID-19 and measures to curb the pandemic were on the rise throughout the fall. According to the monthly results, 100 new coronavirus-related domains appeared in September, 185 in October, and 326 in November. This renewed interest is due to new measures taken to combat the pandemic: for example, there was a relatively high number of domain names associated with QR codes, certificates, health passports, and checks in October and November. In addition, domains with a reference to the new COVID-19 Omicron strain appeared in November.
In total, 1,669 domains containing words corona, covid, pandemic, pandemia, vaccine, ковид, пандемия, and вакцина among others have been added to the list since the beginning of 2021 (January-November): 1,466 in .RU and 203 in .РФ.
The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ continues to monitor the registration trends of coronavirus-related domains in the Russian ccTLDs .RU and .РФ. The monitoring is aimed at identifying potentially dangerous domains and reducing possible harm from them.
If you have been affected by visiting a website or reading an email that uses phishing domain names, including coronavirus-related names, please contact the hotline of a competent internet security organization. The hotline numbers can be found on the website of the Coordination Center’s other cybersecurity project, Domain Patrol, where industry news, useful instructions on what to do when faced with a cyber threat, and internet safety rules are also published.
