GDPR Deadline & impacts of its implementation on cybersecurity: WHOIS DATAs the EU defined GDPR compliance deadline of 25 May approaches, a growing number of registrars are going dark. This trend will have a significant impact on cyber-crime fighting capability. At MoSec Solutions, we have outlined some issues that will negatively impact on some of our most effective cybersecurity mechanisms. The main pain-point is the negative impact that the EU defined GDPR has had on internet domain registration. The data collected during a domain registration constitutes one of the most critical components needed in the fight against cyber-crime. For those who do not know what domain registration data is and how the domain registration process works, here is a brief introduction.At the request to register a domain, we are generally obligated to issue some information, i.e. Names, Address, etc. This information is referred to as “Domain Registration Information”. The data is published by domain registrars in the international Registration Directory Service (RDS), formerly known as WHOIS, upon a successful registration. It is this information that we usually deploy in an attempt to unmask the name, address and contact details of all domain registrants.As Cyber-Crime fighters, we rely on this information to link malicious domains that we identify or discover other related domains being used by the same cyber criminals. We follow up by flagging and proactively block them in our pursuit to prevent further damage by cyber-crime campaigns and measures.

• domains that we identify or discover
• domains that we identify or discover