Shining a Light on DNS Abuse: How the NetBeacon Institute Transforms Reporting, Measurement, and Mitigation

1. Introduction: The Critical Need to Address DNS Abuse

The Domain Name System is the Internet’s circulatory system—quietly translating billions of human-readable names into machine-readable addresses each day. Its ubiquity, however, makes it an irresistible target. Threat actors register or compromise domains to host phishing pages, malware droppers, botnet command-and-control servers, pharming redirects, and spam campaigns—the five abuse types that collectively undermine trust in every online interaction.

For registrars and registries, DNS abuse is more than a nuisance; it is an operational, reputational, and regulatory headache. Victims often send incomplete, ad hoc reports to whichever e-mail address they can find, while operators face tightening contractual obligations to act swiftly and document every mitigation step. The result is a widening gap between where abuse is observed and where it can be fixed, allowing malicious domains to persist longer than they should.

Closing that gap requires two complementary capabilities:

1. Clear, standardised reporting channels that anyone—individual users, law-enforcement agencies, incident-response teams—can use without specialised tooling.
2. Transparent, data-driven measurement that tracks abuse trends, benchmarks mitigation speed, and highlights systemic blind spots.
   

The NetBeacon Institute was created to deliver exactly those capabilities. By pairing a free, centralised reporting portal with an academically rigorous analytics platform, it transforms scattered complaints into actionable intelligence and converts raw telemetry into strategic insight. What follows is an exploration of why DNS abuse persists, how NetBeacon tackles the problem, and where its work fits within the broader security ecosystem.

2. NetBeacon Institute Overview

2.1. Origins, Mission & Vision

Established in 2021 by Public Interest Registry (PIR)—the non-profit operator of .ORG—the Institute was born from a simple insight: although many players care about DNS abuse, not all have the resources or workflows to combat it effectively.

• Mission — Reduce DNS abuse worldwide by simplifying reporting, advancing best-practice research, and sharing open data.
  
• Vision — an Internet where registrars, registries, security teams, and everyday users collaborate through transparent channels to keep the namespace trustworthy.
  To realise that vision, the Institute offers two free, flagship programmes: NetBeacon Reporter (a centralised, enriched abuse-reporting portal) and NetBeacon MAP (an academically rigorous measurement platform built with KOR Labs).

2.2. Structure, Funding & Independence

Although PIR provides 100 % of the funding, the Institute operates at arm’s length:

• Functional separation ensures it plays no role in handling .ORG abuse cases.
• A lean core team (fewer than a dozen staff) coordinates with an Advisory Council of registry, registrar, policy, and security experts from organisations such as Cloudflare, Google, Verisign, and ICANN.
• Technology partners include CleanDNS — which donated the Reporter code-base — and KOR Labs, which supplies data science expertise for MAP.

This structure gives the Institute the resources of a large registry while preserving the neutrality expected of a shared community platform.

2.3. From “DNS Abuse Institute” to NetBeacon

On 6 May 2024, the organisation rebranded from DNS Abuse Institute to NetBeacon Institute. The new name better captures its evolving role—beaconing reliable signals about abuse to those who can act—and unifies its programmes under a single, memorable brand. The change coincided with:

• A major refresh of Reporter and MAP,

Broader outreach to ccTLD operators, and
A commitment to make all tools, dashboards, and research free and publicly accessible.

3. The DNS Abuse Challenge

3.1 Understanding DNS-Abuse Categories

3.1.1. Phishing

Fraudsters register look-alike or compromised domains, create convincing login pages, and harvest credentials or payment data in minutes. Because the attack hinges on where the victim lands, DNS is the natural choke-point for defence.

3.1.2. Malware

Malicious binaries, droppers, or exploit kits are hosted under seemingly benign domains. Once downloaded, they can steal information, encrypt files for ransom, or silently recruit the device into a larger botnet.

3.1.3. Botnets

Command-and-control (C2) operators rely on dedicated or algorithmically generated domains to issue instructions to thousands of infected hosts. Disrupting those domains severs the botnet’s nervous system.

3.1.4. Pharming

Attackers manipulate DNS look-ups—via cache poisoning, rogue resolvers, or hacked routers—so users are invisibly redirected to fake destinations, even when the URL is typed correctly.

3.1.5. Spam as a Delivery Vector

While spam is not inherently a DNS threat, high-volume e-mail or SMS campaigns amplify the four abuses above by funnelling victims to malicious domains at scale.

3.2. Real-World Impact & Why It Matters

• Economic loss: Successful phishing alone cost organisations an estimated billions annually through fraud, remediation, and downtime.
  
• Trust erosion: Consumers who land on a poisoned domain often blame the brand they thought they were visiting, damaging reputations built over years.
  
• Operational drag: Registrars and registries must process an ever-growing queue of incomplete, non-standard abuse reports—slowing mitigation and exposing them to regulatory fines.
  
• Security spill-over: Botnet C2 domains enable DDoS attacks and ransomware campaigns that ripple across supply chains.
  
• Regulatory pressure: ICANN’s 2024 contractual amendments now mandate demonstrable, timely mitigation, turning DNS abuse from a best-effort task into a compliance requirement.

4. NetBeacon’s Core Solutions

4.1. NetBeacon Reporter — Centralised DNS-Abuse Reporting

4.1.1. Three-Step Reporting Workflow

1. Sign Up / Log In – authenticate with e-mail or SSO.
   
2. Submit – choose the abuse type, add the domain and any evidence.
   
3. Done – the system converts the submission to the XARF standard, enriches it with WHOIS, DNS and threat-feed look-ups, then routes the report—via e-mail or API—directly to the responsible registrar or registry.

The entire process takes minutes and ensures operators receive a single, well-structured alert instead of dozens of ad-hoc e-mails.

4.1.2. Who Can Report?

Stakeholder	Typical Use-Case	Benefit
Individuals / SMEs	Victims flag a phishing or malware site.	No need to know the registrar; NetBeacon handles routing.
Law-Enforcement Agencies	Bulk submission of scam or botnet domains.	Evidence packaged in a registrar-friendly format.
Consumer-Protection Bodies	Forward citizen complaints.	Higher confidence the report reaches the right operator.
Security & Threat-Intel Teams	Automate abuse feeds via API.	Reduced manual triage, faster takedowns.

4.1.3. Scope & Limitations

• In scope: phishing, malware, botnets, spam (as a delivery vector).
  
• Out of scope: CSAM or broader content disputes—reporters are redirected to specialised hotlines.
  
• Reach: gTLD registrars plus 38 participating ccTLDs (≈ 60 % of ccTLD DUM) already consume enriched reports.

4.2. NetBeacon MAP — Measurement & Analytics Platform

4.2.1. Data Sources & Methodology (with KOR Labs)

• Feeds ingested: public block-lists, phishing kits, malware trackers, DNS zone files, RDAP/WHOIS snapshots, live page captures.
  
• Scanning cadence: repeated checks from 5 minutes to 12 hours over 30 days to confirm whether and when mitigation occurs.
  
• Academic oversight: KOR Labs (Grenoble Alpes University) maintains the transparent methodology, filters “special domains” (e.g., URL shorteners) and labels each case as malicious, compromised or uncategorised.
  

4.2.2. Dashboards, Monthly Analyses & Key Metrics

Output	What You Get
Interactive Dashboards	Registrar- or registry-specific views: abuse volume, mitigation speed, malicious-vs-compromised breakdowns.
Monthly PDF Reports	League tables of high- and low-abuse operators, plus trend commentary.
Core KPIs	Mitigation rate (%), median time-to-takedown, abuse concentration (per 10 k domains), registration intent (malicious vs. compromised).

Together, Reporter closes the action gap (getting high-quality evidence to the right inbox/API), while MAP closes the visibility gap (showing who is improving and where blind spots remain)—delivering a full feedback loop for the entire DNS ecosystem.

5. Governance, Partners & Community Engagement

5.1. Strategic Partners: PIR, CleanDNS, KOR Labs

Partner	Role	Value to the Ecosystem
Public Interest Registry (PIR)	Sole funder and founding sponsor	Guarantees long-term, non-commercial support while keeping the Institute independent from .ORG abuse decisions.
CleanDNS	Donated the core code-base for NetBeacon Reporter	Production-ready platform, continuously refined with registrar-side experience.
KOR Labs (Grenoble Alpes University)	Academic lead for NetBeacon MAP	Transparent methodology, rigorous data science, and peer-reviewed credibility.

5.2. Advisory Council & Expert Community

A multistakeholder Council guides strategy and best-practice development. Members span:

• gTLD & ccTLD Operators – e.g., Verisign, Nominet, Identity Digital
  
• Large Registrars – GoDaddy, Namecheap, Tucows
  
• Security Vendors & CDNs – Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Abusix
  
• Standards & Policy Voices – ICANN CTO, Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network
  

This diversity keeps the Institute’s work neutral, technically sound, and globally relevant.

5.3. ccTLD / gTLD Integration & Participation

• 38 ccTLDs—roughly 60 % of global ccTLD domain-years—already accept enriched Reporter feeds.
  
• gTLD registrars onboard via ICANN credentials, selecting preferred e-mail or API endpoints and enrichment levels.
  

Dashboards and monthly MAP reports let each operator benchmark mitigation speed, abuse concentration, and progress against peers—turning community transparency into healthy competitive pressure.

6. Impact & Value

6.1. Accelerating Abuse Mitigation: Metrics & Trends

NetBeacon’s data shows that structured, registrar-ready intelligence shrinks the abuse life-cycle:

Indicator	Pre-Reporter¹	Current (Jun 2025 MAP)²	Delta
Median phishing takedown	~48 h	< 24 h	▼ 50 %
Malware-domain mitigation rate	62 %	78 %	▲ 16 pp
Unique phishing domains/month	30 k+	-14 % YoY	▼

1 Industry baselines drawn from mixed ad-hoc reporting.
2 Figures extracted from NetBeacon MAP Monthly Analysis (June 2025).

Faster mitigation directly curbs downstream harm: fewer stolen credentials, fewer compromised machines, and less botnet firepower available for DDoS or ransomware campaigns.

6.2. Success Stories & Industry Testimonials

• Identity Digital — “NetBeacon MAP provides reliable insight and helps registries and registrars understand and collaborate on areas for improvement.” — Alvaro Alvarez, EVP & General Counsel
  
• Realtime Register — “Enriched reports save us time and create a safer DNS environment.” — Theo Geurts, Compliance & Policy Officer
  
• CleanDNS Partnership — By donating the Reporter code-base and integrating NetBeacon’s enriched abuse data into its own workflows, CleanDNS reports sharper evidence quality and more consistent mitigation SLAs for client registrars.
  
• ccTLD Cohort (38 registries) — Most receive < 10 quality-checked abuse reports per month, enabling lean teams to focus on action rather than sifting through spammy tip-offs.

7. Comparative Landscape: Complementary DNS-Abuse Initiatives

7.1. ICANN Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR)

• What it does: Collects block-list hits across gTLDs to publish macro-level abuse statistics—useful for policy and trend analysis.
  
• Limitation: No registrar-specific routing or near-real-time case data.
  
• Fit with NetBeacon: MAP adds registrar- and ccTLD-level granularity plus mitigation-time metrics, turning DAAR’s “weather report” into operator-actionable insights.
  

7.2. Spamhaus DBL & SURBL Threat Feeds

• What they do: Provide curated, real-time domain block-lists consumed by mail gateways and security appliances.
  
• Limitation: Focus on blacklisting—not on sending evidence back to the party that can remediate.
  
• Fit with NetBeacon: Reporter converts end-user or SOC sightings into enriched, registrar-ready reports; those same domains can then exit Spamhaus lists faster after verified takedown.
  

7.3. Abuse.ch Trackers (URLhaus, MalwareBazaar, …)

• What they do: Open, community-driven feeds of active phishing kits, malware URLs, and botnet C2 infrastructure.
  
• Limitation: Provide indicators but no built-in routing or mitigation feedback loop.
  
• Fit with NetBeacon: Operators can cross-reference Abuse.ch indicators with MAP’s “mitigated / not-mitigated” labels or bulk-forward them through Reporter for registrar follow-up.
  

7.4. APWG / PhishTank Crowd-Sourced Phishing Data

• What they do: Accept public submissions of phishing URLs; publish vetted lists for browsers, filters and takedown teams.
  
• Limitation: Report formats vary; some registrars still receive multiple duplicated e-mails.
  
• Fit with NetBeacon: Reporter standardises those crowd tips into XARF, enriches them with DNS/WHOIS look-ups, and ensures a single, evidence-rich alert reaches the right abuse desk.
  

7.5. How NetBeacon Complements, Not Competes

Need	Existing Solutions	NetBeacon’s Added Lift
High-fidelity evidence routed to the correct operator	Often manual e-mails from varied sources	Reporter’s enrichment + registrar/ccTLD matching
Transparent mitigation benchmarking	DAAR (macro), individual vendor stats	MAP’s per-operator dashboards & month-over-month KPIs
Open, no-cost access	Many feeds require commercial licences	Institute tools and data are free, PIR-funded
Community R&D and best-practice funding	Limited, project-specific grants	NetBeacon earmarks budget for DNS-abuse research and training

8. Key Takeaways & Next Steps

8.1. What Makes NetBeacon Different

Dimension	NetBeacon Advantage
End-to-End Loop	Couples crowd-sourced, enriched abuse reports (Reporter) with transparent, academic telemetry (MAP), creating a feedback cycle from detection to measurement.
Operator-First Delivery	Automatically routes XARF-formatted evidence to the exact registrar or ccTLD registry—no guesswork, no generic inboxes.
Open & Free	Fully funded by the non-profit PIR; tools, dashboards, and research outputs require no licence fees.
Neutral Governance	Independent advisory council spanning registries, registrars, security vendors, and policy bodies ensures balanced stewardship.
Proven Impact	Documented 50 % faster phishing takedowns and double-digit gains in malware-mitigation rates since 2023.

8.2. How Readers and Organisations Can Contribute

1. Create a Reporter Account
   If you encounter phishing, malware or botnet domains, submit them via NetBeacon Reporter or integrate the API into your SOC pipeline.
   
2. Claim Your Dashboard
   Registrars and registries can request a free MAP dashboard to benchmark abuse levels, mitigation speed and peer performance.
   
3. Adopt Best Practices
   Leverage NetBeacon’s research papers and methodology docs to refine internal abuse-handling playbooks.
   
4. Join the Community
   Apply to the Advisory Council, propose joint research, or sponsor workshops to advance DNS-abuse mitigation globally.
   
5. Spread the Word
   Share this article, present NetBeacon insights at security meet-ups, and encourage partners to route abuse reports through the platform.