Registrations Of “Shutdown” Domains Jump Following US Government Shutdown

Following the shutdown of the US government, the number of domain names registered using the string of “shutdown” have jumped. From 30 September to 10 October there have been 141 .com and .net domains registered that include the string and a total of 155 since 18 August.

Using Verisign’s DomainView-Grapher (a beta tool available from Verisign Labs that allows users to check for registrations of strings in .com and .net domains), the company examined the number of domains registered over the last three months containing the string “shutdown.”

As Verisign observed it’s clear from the data that interest in shutdown related domain names spiked considerably on the eve of the government shutdown and has stayed relatively high since then. Which is similar to any major event, good or bad. There is always someone wanting to take advantage of it!