{"id":4449,"date":"2015-02-24T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T16:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/?p=4449"},"modified":"2015-02-24T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T17:06:54","slug":"uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\/","title":{"rendered":"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I never had any issues with <a href=\"http:\/\/Uniregistry.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Uniregistry<\/strong><\/a> that were not dealt with swiftly.<\/p>\n<p>As part of a group of people that beta-tested the domain registry platform before its launch, I assisted with the initial round of debugging its processes. As a systems analyst and UX professional, I made suggestions about the flow and presentation of the registry&#8217;s online services, before it launched.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a thorny issue, however, that I have not seen any action upon. It&#8217;s not vital to Uniregistry&#8217;s functions, but for several reasons it is important to address effectively.<\/p>\n<p>The WHOIS shield info is sequential, using the &#8220;privacy-link.com&#8221; email address and a number before it. That number, is increased with every domain that uses it.<\/p>\n<p>The use of sequential numbers, particularly in accounts or usernames, is inherently dangerous. Fourteen years ago, <a href=\"http:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/domains\/how-i-saved-godaddy-in-2001\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>I assisted GoDaddy patch a security hole<\/strong><\/a> that used sequential numbering for its accounts.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of Uniregistry, the issue is not that of security, but that of easy access to thousands of email addresses by unscrupulous spammers. They take the range from 1 to a recent high number, and append &#8220;privacy-link.com&#8221; to it, spamming their content to the registrants of these domains.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a spammer&#8217;s wet dream.<\/p>\n<p>How is this issue addressed: with the use of\u00a0 &#8220;hashing&#8221; these public email addresses so that they are seemingly random. While anyone can harvest these email addresses directly from the WHOIS, they would need to get the domain name first, an extra step that not many spammers engage in.<\/p>\n<p>A hashed email address under WHOIS shield would look like this: 8860333562115bb34ac@privacy-link.com. The amount of spam would be lowered tremendously, because by using this method there is no &#8220;next&#8221; number up or down; everything is stored internally in a reference matrix at Uniregistry.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, such email addresses can and should be changed automatically every 30 days, to make the old ones, harvested from the WHOIS, obsolete.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m confident that now that I&#8217;ve explained the issue, that Uniregistry will implement these changes to further improve their otherwise flawless platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I never had any issues with Uniregistry that were not dealt with swiftly. As part of a group of people that beta-tested the domain registry platform before its launch, I assisted with the initial round of debugging its processes. As a systems analyst and UX professional, I made suggestions about the flow and presentation of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,193,10,37,68,1144,1032,1145],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domains","tag-acro","tag-acronet","tag-acroplex","tag-acroplex-llc","tag-acroplexcom","tag-sequential-numbers","tag-uniregistry","tag-whois-privacy","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acro.net\/blog\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Acro.net - A Domain Investing Blog by Theo Develegas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-24T16:32:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-24T17:06:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Theo Develegas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Theo Develegas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Theo Develegas\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c9625f061a0e603a87f5bf0f6f781fe\"},\"headline\":\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-24T16:32:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-24T17:06:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":358,\"commentCount\":6,\"keywords\":[\"Acro\",\"Acro.net\",\"Acroplex\",\"Acroplex LLC\",\"Acroplex.com\",\"sequential numbers\",\"Uniregistry\",\"WHOIS privacy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Domains\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-24T16:32:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-02-24T17:06:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c9625f061a0e603a87f5bf0f6f781fe\"},\"description\":\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/uniregistry-sequential-whois-shield-emails-attract-unscrupulous-spammers\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uniregistry : Sequential WHOIS shield emails attract unscrupulous spammers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/acro.net\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Acro.net - 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