The problem of interceptor top level domains revisited

Abstract

This paper is an extension of my earlier paper [1]. It examines the continuing growth of this problem, and the likelihood that it will continue to get worse. Since the previous paper, the author was contacted by a lawyer involved in litigating a dispute related to TLDs. As noted in the previous paper, misdirected communication has obvious security and privacy ramifications and is an age old problem that predates the Internet. In recent years it has been exacerbated by the arrival of electronic communication and the multitude of ways that communication can be misdirected. A new chapter in this age old problem is being written with the proliferation of top level domains (TLDs). This paper examines this problem in more detail and provides a full analysis of the current set of TLDs. In particular, we are concerned with TLDs that have a nontrivial probability of intercepting traffic intended for another TLD. Intercepting TLDs have the potential of intercepting a lot of traffic since a TLD can support many domain names. This paper updates the results in the previous paper and also performs an auditory similarity measurement between domain names. The issue here is that sometimes TLDs are given orally, such as over the telephone. There are TLDs which, although spelled differently, sound similar to each other. Finally, we give the results of some experiments performed with purchased domain names to be deliberately confusing.