WHOIS API Blog

20 Questions WHOIS Data Can Help Answer

Aside from the most obvious and common WHOIS data use case—determining “who is” behind a domain—each WHOIS record can help reveal more details about a domain.

Using WhoisAPI services from PowerShell: an invitation

PowerShell is a powerful cross-platform interpreter for scripting that can be used for automating the tasks. On Windows systems in particular, it is the primary and native tool for system administration, data processing, and many more activities. The possibilities range from simple scripts to implement command-line solutions to large, object-oriented tasks. 

This blog is an invitation to use WhoisAPI's services in PowerShell. This consists of using RESTful APIs, illustrating the power of the actual services, especially in security and domainer applications. The presentation is aimed at beginners with a very basic background in programming, and no background in PowerShell is assumed. However, experts of PowerShell who have not used RESTful APIs yet, and experts with a UNIX background making their first steps with PowerShell may also find it useful. 

WHOIS Lookups & Enterprise Cybersecurity Policies: A Secure Way to Search for Domain Names

These days, it’s unwise to assume that all websites are safe to access. For this reason, security teams typically advise employees against clicking on any links embedded in an email, especially from an unknown sender. This recommendation may even extend to suspicious search results that appear in search engines.

Find Out More About an IP Address via WHOIS Lookup and WHOIS API

IP addresses are unique identifiers for devices hooked to the Internet, helpfully routing users to the correct hosts or websites. However, because of inherent DNS design flaws, attackers can spoof IP addresses. In fact, they may do so to misdirect users to dangerous sites. Therefore, it is critical to routinely scan the IP addresses passing through your network filters to ensure their integrity and identify if any has potential links to malicious campaigns or networks.

Part of this process is retrieving the WHOIS records of an IP address, which is doable via WHOIS Lookup or WHOIS API to extract their ownership details for further inspection. Both products provide additional valuable details, including the domains hosted on an IP address and which regional Internet registry (RIR) manages the resource.

How to Conduct a Website Domain Search for Cybersecurity Purposes

WHOIS lookups are a viable way for cybersecurity professionals to analyze domains’ integrity. Though they may seem less exciting than, say, deploying some nifty pen-testing tools, WHOIS lookups remain useful as a first step in catching threat actors. 

In fact, identifiers in WHOIS records can clue investigators in on a domain’s past usage and allow them to pinpoint indicators of compromise (IoCs) residing within their networks. With WHOIS data, they can also identify domain associations and effectively map attacks that happened or could happen on their infrastructure. Read on to learn more about why conducting website domain searches is critical to your digital operations, and how WHOIS API and WHOIS Lookup can facilitate it.

What You Can Find Out from a WHOIS IP Search

Did you know that an IP address can be a good starting point for a cybercrime investigation or even just a routine check of suspicious activities? For instance, when you go to malware data feeds, or any threat intelligence site, one of the usual indicators of compromise (IoCs) you’ll see are known malicious IP addresses.

However, like any threat data, an IP address becomes utterly useless when it doesn’t provide any meaningful details. What then? Tools such as WHOIS Lookup might help to dig deeper. 

So, what exactly is WHOIS Lookup, and what information can it provide about an IP address?

How Authorities Can Clamp Down on Cybercrime with Bulk Domain Lookups

Nominet’s takedown of 28,937 malicious sites is a small triumph for law enforcement and other internet stakeholders. With help from authorities, the domain registry has been on a quest to purge the .uk namespace of rogue domains since 2009. Now, for the first time in five years, the total number of suspended domains has finally reflected a decline. The figure may not seem like a lot, considering that it only accounts for 0.22% of the 13 million domains registered in the U.K. Still, it was a milestone for an industry fraught with prolific bad actors. In the U.K. alone, an average of 800 cyber attacks per hour hit councils. This number translates into around 263 million in just half a year.

Curbing cybercrime is an essential undertaking for internet authorities, in light of new digital technologies, and the Internet’s evolving business model. Unfortunately, lack of resources at both the domain level and cybersecurity know-how, as well as legal barriers, slow down authorities in their efforts to hunt down perpetrators. This can be made easier, though, with a bulk domain lookup solution.

Bulk WHOIS API is a good example of a research tool that cyber investigators, electronic crime units, and regulatory agencies can rely on to faster inspect a significant volume of domains. With an IP address, email address, or domain name, users can obtain pertinent registrant information for a group of web addresses. Let’s take a closer look at how users can get more out of the solution.

How a Domain Checker Helps in Digital Forensics and Incident Response

Digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) experts have a unique yet essential role in maintaining the overall cybersecurity of any organization. They are responsible for gathering data about ongoing attacks or attempts, mitigating their possible effects, and implementing post-attack actions. That includes digging deeper to obtain evidence to enhance their cyber defense as well as aiding in law enforcement efforts.

The fact that attacks are getting stealthier and more sophisticated, though, in terms of tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) make DFIR experts’ jobs ever more difficult. They must not only resolve issues in as little time as possible but also be there to prevent successful attacks from causing irreparable damage to systems or their companies’ reputations.

Timely detection is, therefore, the answer. Then again, DFIR experts get bombarded by numerous notifications from security tools every day and thus can get easily overwhelmed by false positives. So they need solutions that can help them quickly verify the validity and quality of domains, IP addresses, and email addresses that their users come in contact with. Domain search solutions such as WHOIS Lookup and its API version WHOIS API may just be what they are looking for. Let’s discuss the reasons why.

4 App Development Challenges a WHOIS Data Lookup API Can Help Address

About 90% of the time people spend on their mobile devices is app use. And with almost half of the world’s 7.7 billion population using their phones and tablets every day, the app development market is indeed a financially rewarding sector. In fact, experts predict the overall market’s revenue to reach $407 billion by 2026.

But like any other booming market, the app development sector has several hurdles to overcome. What immediately comes to mind is the challenge of creating an app with minimal bugs and glitches. Then, there is also the issue of marketability. How do you make sure it gets downloaded and used by the people you created them for?

A WHOIS data lookup API may be able to help. We specifically explored four app development challenges where WHOIS API can make a difference.