Malware Activity: Top-level Domains
Quarter over Quarter Comparison:
October 1, 2021 - December 31, 2021

For purposes of observing change over time, it is useful to compare measurements and metrics over successive reporting periods. Such comparisons illustrate whether malware activities are increasing or decreasing, and where such changes are occurring. Such comparisons can identify TLDs that are persistently abused or exploited to host malware. Investigators or policy makers may focus on these for deeper analyses.

In the table below, we compare number of domains reported for hosting malware in TLDs for the two consecutive quarters.

Ranking of TLDs by Malware Domains, Quarter over Quarter
(October to December 2021)

TLDs with a minimum of 30,000 domains under management and 2<5 malware domains

Number of Malware Domains
Rank TLD July to September 2021 October to December 2021 ▼
1 com 13,131 17,408 (+33%)
2 xyz 11,251 1,955 (-83%)
3 net 962 1,405 (+46%)
4 ▲ +5* ru 510 1,238 (+143%)
5 ▲ +3 org 578 1,187 (+105%)
6 ▲ +1 br 588 949 (+61%)
7 ▲ +5 in 367 782 (+113%)
8 ▲ +7 cn 260 595 (+129%)
9 ▲ +14 pl 154 546 (+255%)
10 ▼ -4 top 589 473 (-20%)
11 ▲ +17 it 114 450 (+295%)
12 ▲ +9 de 192 447 (+133%)
13 ▲ +37 hu 73 354 (+385%)
14 ▲ +27 eu 86 328 (+281%)
15 ▲ +39 cz 58 327 (+464%)
16 ▲ +11 vn 116 325 (+180%)
17 ▼ -7 info 484 319 (-34%)
18 ▲ +16 nl 101 317 (+214%)
19 id 209 317 (+52%)
20 ▲ +13 fr 102 274 (+169%)

* Indicates change over prior quarter

Quarter over Quarter Comparisons of:

Key Statistics

Activity in TLDs

Activity in Domain Registrars

Activity in Hosting Networks (ASNs)