Latest news of the domain name industry

Recent Posts

eNom named “worst” for badware

Kevin Murphy, January 12, 2011, 17:34:54 (UTC), Domain Registrars

Demand Media-owned eNom has been fingered as the worst company when it comes to hosting “badware”, according to the latest quarterly report from HostExploit.
The report puts eNom at number three in its overall league table of hosts involved (albeit generally unwittingly) in supporting malicious activity online, up from seven in the third quarter.
HostExploit conducts meta-research, looking at a number of factors (such as phishing and spam) normalizing and weighting data provided by a wide variety of sources.
eNom’s position on the list is based almost entirely on its ranking under the “badware” metric, which uses data supplied by StopBadware.org members Google, Sunbelt Software and Team Cymru.
Broken down by category, eNom scored 944 out of 1,000 in the fourth quarter, using HostExploit’s scoring system for badware. The network ranked second scored only 594.
What is badware? The report says:

Badware fundamentally disregards how users might choose to employ their own computer. Examples of such software include spyware, malware, rogues, and deceptive adware. It commonly appears in the form of free screensavers that surreptitiously generate advertisements, malicious web browser toolbars that take browsers to unexpected web pages and keylogger programs that transmit personal data to malicious third parties.

Other major domain name companies also rank in the top 50 worst hosts; 1&1, Oversee.net and Go Daddy occupy positions #35, #36 and #37. Google is at #28.
The HostExploit report appears to have been funded by the Nominet Trust.

Tagged: , , ,

Comments (4)

  1. theo says:
    January 12, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    Does Enom actually host these websites ? Or was the domain name registered thru enom ??
    sounds to me like guns don’t kill people , people do.
    Cheap shot .. Didn’t look up the file since i did not register.

    Reply
  2. Michele says:
    January 14, 2011 at 7:27 pm

    If they’re going based on the AS numbers then it’s where the site is hosted ie. its A records, that counts.

    Reply
  3. Cynthia says:
    May 16, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    I began by purchsing this site from a company called Brainhost, who failed to disclose they were a reseller of Enom and charged an unreasonable rate for domain registration. Forced to use a free WordPress product against my will, I opted to cancel the account. Then I was forced into moving the domain name to enom central free account and try to work with it there. It has a crappy product selection, wipes out all work you do if you go to a different hosting company and then takes for ever to refund your money if you should request a refund for a product that is not functional.
    Brainhost refunded – Enom refunded after 5 days then wiped out the settings placed for dns pointing. It also holds hostage the domain for 60 days just like all other sites. Places its earning landing pages without consumer consent and hopefully they will make money off your domain and you simply loose.
    This is not the first time I used this company and after 8 years of horrible products you would think they would make things right with the customer.
    Enom is worse than GoDaddy as it has gone beyond Nickel and Diming the customer to death it continues to prevent customers by overcharging for domain registration.

    Reply

Add Your Comment