Presenting search engine results based on domain name related reputation

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/976,547 filed Oct. 29, 2004. All prior applications are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

[0002] The subject matter of all patent applications is commonly owned and all applications are assigned to The Go Daddy Group, Inc.

[0003] The present invention relates to systems and methods for tracking domain name related reputations, such as reputations of domain names, reputations of domain name registrants, and reputations of email addresses.

[0004] The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networks arranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information between users of computers. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have access to computers connected to the Internet via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Content providers place multimedia information, i.e. text, graphics, sounds, and other forms of data, at specific locations on the Internet referred to as websites. The combination of all the websites and their corresponding webpages on the Internet is generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply web.

[0005] Websites may be created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to generate a standard set of tags that define how the webpages for the website are to be displayed. Users of the Internet may access content providers' websites using software known as an Internet browser, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER or NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR. After the browser has located the desired webpage, it requests and receives information from the webpage, typically in the form of an HTML document, and then displays the webpage content for the user. The user may then view other webpages at the same website or move to an entirely different website using the browser.

[0006] Websites allow businesses and individuals to share their information with a large number of Internet users. Further, many products and services are offered for sale on the Internet, thus elevating the Internet to an essential tool of commerce.

[0007] Electronic mail or email is another important part of the Internet. Email messages may contain, for example, text, images, links, and attachments. Email is one of the most widely used methods of communication over the Internet due to the variety of data that may be transmitted, large number of available recipients, speed, low cost and convenience.

[0008] Email messages may be sent, for example, between friends, family members or between coworkers thereby substituting for traditional letters and office correspondences in many cases. This is made possible because the Internet has very few restrictions on who may send emails, the number of emails that may be transmitted and who may receive the emails. The only real hurdle for sending emails is the requirement that the sender must know the email address (also called network mailbox) of the intended recipient.

[0009] Email messages travel across the Internet, typically passing from server to server, at amazing speeds achievable only by electronic data. The Internet provides the ability to send an email anywhere in the world, often in less than a few seconds. Delivery times are continually being reduced as the Internet's ability to transfer electronic data improves.

[0010] Most internet users find emails to be much more convenient than traditional mail. Traditional mail requires stamps and envelopes to be purchased and a supply maintained, while emails do not require the costs and burden of maintaining a supply of associated products. Emails may also be sent with the click of a few buttons, while letters typically need to be transported to a physical location, such as a mail box, before being sent.

[0011] Once a computer and an Internet connection have been purchased, there are typically few additional costs associated with sending emails. This remains true even if millions, or more, of emails are sent by the same user. Emails thus have the extraordinary power of allowing a single user to send one or more messages to a very large number of people at an extremely low cost.

[0012] The Internet has become a very valuable tool for business and personal communications, information sharing, commerce, etc. However, some individuals have abused the Internet. Among such abuses are phishing, spam, and posting of illegal content on a website (e.g. child pornography). Phishing is the luring of sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, bank accounts and other personal information, from an Internet user by masquerading as someone trustworthy with a legitimate need for such information. Spam or unsolicited email is flooding the Internet with many copies of the identical or nearly identical message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services.

[0013] A single spam message received by a user uses only a small amount of the user's email account's allotted disk space, requires relatively little time to delete and does little to obscure the messages desired by the user. Even a small number of spam messages, while still annoying, would nonetheless cause relatively few real problems. However, the number of spam transmitted over the Internet is growing at an alarming rate. While a single or small number of spam messages are annoying, a large number of spam can fill a user's email account's allotted disk space thereby preventing the receipt of desired emails. Also, a large number of spam can take a significant amount of time to delete and can even obscure the presence of desired emails in the user's email account.

[0014] Spam currently comprises such a large portion of Internet communications that they actually cause data transmission problems for the Internet as a whole. Spam creates data log jams thereby slowing the delivery of more desired data through the Internet. The larger volume of data created by spam also requires the Internet providers to buy larger and more powerful, i.e. more expensive, equipment to handle the additional data flow caused by the spam.

[0015] Spam has a very poor response rate compared to other forms of advertisement. However, since almost all of the costs/problems for transmitting and receiving spam are absorbed by the recipient of the spam and the providers of the hardware for the Internet, spam is nevertheless commercially viable for a spammer due to the extremely low cost of transmitting the spam.

[0016] There are various techniques used for combating Internet abuses. Among them: secure certificates, spam filtering, email challenge-response systems, etc. To obtain a secure certificate a Certification Authority usually authenticates the owner of the domain name, thus allowing the owner of the domain name to employ one of the encryption protocols, e.g. SSL (Secure Socket Layer), for Internet communications. Spam filtering may utilize keywords, various probability algorithms, or white and/or black lists for email addresses, domain names, and/or IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, etc.

[0017] Below are a few examples of the systems (some reputation-based) that combat spam.

[0018] The SENDERBASE system keeps track of the amount of email messages originating from various domain names and IP addresses. IRONPORT SYSTEMS INC., a company that maintains SENDERBASE.ORG, explains how it works in this example: “If a sender has high global volumes of mail—say 200 Million messages per day—from a network of 5 different domains and 1,700 IP addresses that have only been sending mail for 15 days yet have a high end user complaint rate and they don't accept incoming mail, they will have a very low reputation score [. . . ]. If a sender is a Fortune 500 company, they will likely have much more modest global email volumes—say 500,000 messages per day—will have a smaller number of IPs and domains with a long sending history, they will accept incoming email and have low (or zero) end user complaint rates.”

[0019] The Bonded Sender Program maintains a white list-like service. The participants of the service must adhere to the rules and post a bond to be included on the white list.

[0020] SPAMCOP maintains a black list of IP addresses and allows users to report spam to a centralized database.

[0021] Multiple solutions are created for establishing “societies” of trusted users. Some solutions keep track of user reputation or trust level.

[0022] CLOUDMARK, Inc. provides spam filtering and allows users to block or unblock messages manually. The users' votes on messages (blocking and unblocking) are reported to a centralized database, allowing for better spam filtering by reducing the number of false positives. Each CLOUDMARK user is assigned with a reputation (trust rating). If a malicious user unblocks a spam message, while a large number of other users block it, the malicious user's reputation will go down. If a user votes along the lines with the rest of the users, her/his reputation raises.

[0023] VERISIGN, Inc. maintains the list of domain names that were issued a VERISIGN SSL digital certificate, so called “Verified Domains List.” The company plans to make the list accessible to third parties.

[0024] Some systems suggest publishing reputation data in the DNS (Domain Name System) records, e.g. Mailbox Reputation Network.

[0025] For the reputation-based systems to work properly, the sender's email address or at least its domain name part should be correct. Often malicious users forge (spoof) the sender's email address when they send out spam, viruses, or phishing email messages. Among the solutions to this problem are MICROSOFT's Sender ID and YAHOO's Domain Keys. The Sender ID proposal envisions publishing the sender's email IP address in the DNS records of the sender's server. This allows the receiver of the email message to compare the originating IP address in the email with the IP address published in the DNS. If they don't match, the email address was forged. The Domain Keys proposal utilizes public-private key infrastructure. The sender publishes its public key in the DNS records and digitally signs outgoing email messages with its private key. The receiver can validate the sender's signature using the sender's public key published in the DNS records.

[0026] A common mechanism for providing increased security includes the use of encrypted transactions using digital certificates (also known as secure certificates). One widely used security protocol is the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, which uses a hybrid public-key system in which public-key cryptography is used to allow a client and a server to securely agree on a secret session key.

[0027] SSL is a networking protocol developed by Netscape Communications Corp. and RSA Data Security, Inc. to enable secure network communications in a non-secure environment. More particularly, SSL is designed to be used in the Internet environment, where it operates as a protocol layer above the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) layers. The application code then resides above SSL in the networking protocol stack. After an application (such as an Internet browser) creates data to be sent to a peer in the network, the data is passed to the SSL layer where various security procedures are performed on it, and the SSL layer then passes the transformed data to the TCP layer. On the receiver's side of the connection, after the TCP layer receives incoming data it passes that data upward to the SSL layer where procedures are performed to restore the data to its original form. That restored data is then passed to the receiving application. The SSL protocol is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,390 entitled “Secure Socket Layer Application Program Apparatus and Method.” Multiple improvements to the SSL protocol were made in the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, which is intended to gradually replace the SSL.

[0028] The protocols underlying the Internet (TCP/IP, for example) were not designed to provide secure data transmission. The Internet was originally designed with the academic and scientific communities in mind, and it was assumed that users of the network would be working in a non-adversarial, cooperative manner. As the Internet began to expand into a public network, usage outside these communities was relatively limited, with most of the new users located in large corporations. These corporations had the computing facilities to protect their users' data with various security procedures, such as firewalls, that did not require security to be built into the Internet itself. In the past several years, however, Internet usage has skyrocketed. Millions of people now use the Internet and the Web on a regular basis. These users perform a wide variety of tasks, from exchanging electronic mail messages to searching for information to performing business transactions. These users may access the Internet from home, from their cellular phone, or from a number of other environments where security procedures are not commonly available. To support the growth of the Internet as a viable place of doing business, often referred to as “electronic commerce” or simply “e-commerce”, easily-accessible and inexpensive security procedures had to be developed. SSL is one popular solution, and is commonly used with applications that send and receive data using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is the protocol most commonly used for accessing that portion of the Internet referred to as the Web. When HTTP is used with SSL to provide secure communications, the combination is referred to as HTTPS. Non-commercial Internet traffic can also benefit from the security SSL provides. SSL has been proposed for use with data transfer protocols other than HTTP, such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP).

[0029] SSL is designed to provide several different but complementary types of security. First is message privacy. Privacy refers to protecting message content from being readable by persons other than the sender and the intended receiver(s). Privacy is provided by using cryptography to encrypt and decrypt messages. SSL uses asymmetric cryptography, also known as public-key cryptography (at least for establishing the connection or the so called “handshake”). A message receiver can only decrypt an encrypted message if the message creator used the message receiver's public key to encrypt the message and the message receiver uses his private key to decrypt the message.

[0030] Second, SSL provides data integrity for messages being transmitted. Data integrity refers to the ability for a message recipient to detect whether the message content was altered after its creation (thus rendering the message untrustworthy). A message creator passes the message through an algorithm which creates what is called a “message digest”, or a “message authentication code”. The message digest is a large number produced by applying hash functions to the message. A digitally signed digest is sent along with the message. When the message is received, the receiver also processes the message through the same algorithm, creating another digest. If the digest computed by the receiver does not match the digest sent with the message, then it can be assumed that the message contents were altered in some way after the message was created.

[0031] The third security feature SSL provides is known as authentication. Communications over the Internet take place as a sequence of electronic signals, without the communicating parties being able to see each other and visually determine with whom they are communicating. Authentication is a technique that helps to ensure that the parties are who they represent themselves to be, whether the party is a human user or an application program. For example, if a human user is buying goods over the Internet using a credit card, it is important for the human user to know that the application waiting on the other end of the connection for his credit card information is really the vendor he believes he is doing business with, and not an impostor waiting to steal his credit card information.

[0032] One advantage of SSL is that it is application protocol independent. A higher level protocol can layer on top of the SSL Protocol transparently. Thus, the SSL protocol provides connection security where encryption is used after an initial handshake to define a secret key for use during a session and where the communication partner's identity can be authenticated using, for example, a well known public certificate issuing authority. Examples of such well known Certification Authorities (CA) include Starfield Technologies, Inc. (a subsidiary of The Go Daddy Group, Inc.), RSA Data Security, Inc., VERISIGN, and EQUIFAX.

[0033] Authentication is important in establishing the secure connection as it provides a basis for the client to trust that the server, typically identified by its Universal Resource Locator (URL), is the entity associated with the server public key provided to the client and used to establish the secret session key. As noted above, this authentication may be provided through the use of certificates obtained by the server from one of the well known Certification Authorities. The certificate (such as a X.509 certificate) typically includes an identification of the server (such as its hostname), the server's public key, and a digital signature which is provided by the well known Certification Authority. The digital signature is used by a client receiving the certificate from a server to authenticate the identity of the server before initiating a secured session. In particular, the application on the client initiating the secured communication session, such as an Internet browser, is typically installed with a public key ring including public keys for various well known Certification Authorities that allow the client to verify server certificates issued by these Certification Authorities.

[0034] Typically a Certification Authority verifies a subscriber (also known as a requester) before a secure certificate is issued. The verification may include checking the person's identity, address, telephone number, email address, ownership of a domain name, etc. Companies and organizations may be verified by checking if they are properly registered with the appropriate governmental agencies. A Certification Authority may access various databases to verify a person or organization, make phone calls to verify telephone numbers, send email messages to verify email addresses, request copies of person's ID or registration documents for companies and organizations, etc.

[0035] A Certification Authority may issue various levels (types) of secure certificates. The secure certificate level typically indicates the rigorousness with which the subscriber was verified.

[0049] The present invention will now be discussed in detail with regard to the attached drawing figures which were briefly described above. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth illustrating the Applicant's best mode for practicing the invention and enabling one of ordinary skill in the art of making and using the invention. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without many of these specific details. In other instances, well-known machines and method steps have not been described in particular detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention. Unless otherwise indicated, like parts and method steps are referred to with like reference numerals.

[0050] For the purposes of this application Registering Entity may include one or more domain name Registries, and/or one or more domain name Registrars, and/or one or more domain name Resellers.

[0051] Some embodiments of the present invention utilize the unique position of a Registering Entity on the Internet. For example, the Registrar has access to the domain name billing information and can determine who the purchaser of the domain is. The contact information in the domain name WHOIS records is provided by the registrant and is not always reliable. In this case, the Registrar may rely on the billing information. Further, the registrant may choose private registration and the registrant's WHOIS records will be hidden to the public. Nevertheless, the Registrar still has access to the registrant's private registration records. Typically, the Registering Entity has access to forwarding, masking, and DNS records of the domain name, thus if reputation values are determined for one of the domain names, those reputation values may be associated with all the domain names connected through forwarding, masking, or DNS records. Further, the Registering Entity may change WHOIS records; this allows the Registering Entity to save domain name related reputation information into the WHOIS records. If the Registering Entity is a hosting provider for the domain name, the Registering Entity may save domain name related reputation information into the DNS records.

[0052] The WHOIS data may be maintained by a Registry, a Registrar, and/or another party. “Thin” Registries store limited amount of information about a domain name; typically, it includes: “Domain Name”, “Registrar”, “Whois Server”, “Referral URL”, “Name Server”, “Status”, “Updated Date”, “Creation Date”, “Expiration Date”, etc. “Thick” Registries in addition store Registrant, Administrative, Technical, and Billing contact information. Registrars usually store detailed information about the domain names registered through them. Even though the WHOIS is public records, many Registries and Registrars limit access to the WHOIS data by automated solutions (e.g. computer programs, scripts, “crawlers,” etc.). This prevents copying substantial parts of the WHOIS database and potential use of this data for unsolicited email campaigns. Typically, the Registering Entity may avoid such limitations. Additionally, for the domain names registered through the Registrar, the Registrar has access to the domain name registrations, renewals, transfers, expirations, etc. in real time.

[0053] For the purposes of this application domain name related reputation data may include one or more values, ratings, or scores per a domain name. The data may further include links or references to the locations (typically on the network) where such values, ratings, or scores may be found.

[0054] Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a system of the present invention includes a Registering Entity 105, a Domain Names Database 110, a Reputation Database 115, a Presentation Means 120, a Subject 125, and a Requester 130. The Registering Entity 105 may be a domain name Registry, a Registrar of domain names, or a Reseller of a Registrar. The Registering Entity 105 may be an accredited ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Registry or Registrar. Examples of ICANN-accredited Registrars include GoDaddy.com, Wild West Domains, etc. The Registering Entity 105 maintains the Domain Names Database 110. The Domain Names Database 110 contains one or more domain names registered through or with the Registering Entity 105 or registered through or with another party. The Subject 125 is a person or an entity associated with one or more domain names registered through the Registering Entity 105 (link 145).

[0055] The Subject 125 may be a client of the Registering Entity 105, a purchaser of products or services provided by the Registering Entity 105, a user of the products or services provided by the Registering Entity 105 (e.g. email account users), a registrant of one or more domain names registered through the Registering Entity 105, a person or entity on record with the Registering Entity 105 (e.g. billing records, private registration records, etc.), a person or entity appearing in the WHOIS records for one or more domain names registered through the Registering Entity 105 or any combination thereof. The system may include one or more Subjects. The system may also include one or more Registering Entities; for simplification purposes the system of FIG. 1 is described as having one Registering Entity.

[0056] The products or services provided by the Registering Entity 105 may include registering a domain name, providing an email service (account), hosting service, issuing a digital certificate, computer software, website designing tools and/or services, reputation tracking service or any combination thereof.

[0057] The Reputation Database 115 stores domain name related reputation data. There may be multiple records in the Reputation Database 115 for a single domain name from the Domain Names Database 110 (link 135). The Reputation Database 115 preferably would be maintained by the Registering Entity 105, but could be maintained by a third party. The Reputation Database 115 may store reputation records for various categories associated with a domain name. Such categories may include email practices, website content, privacy policies and practices, fraudulent activities, complaints, digital certificates associated with the domain name, an overall reputation or any combination thereof. The overall reputation may be calculated from other reputation records using the sum, average, median, minimum, maximum, or any other formula. The reputation data may be tracked on a person or an entity, a domain name, a URL associated with the domain name, an email address or any combination thereof.

[0058] The Reputation Database 115 may hold data on the amount of spam that originated from a domain name email accounts (per week, per month, per year, total, etc.), number of complaints (about spam, about phishing, about other fraudulent activities), or website content (illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, pornography, nudity, or any other form of adult content, profanity, violence, intolerance, hate, racism, militant groups, extremists, Satanism, witchcraft, gambling, casino, spam, MLM, pyramid schemes, fraud, or any other illegal or questionable activity, etc.). The values in the reputation data may be numeric ratings or values out of a predetermined set of discrete values. Examples of sets of discrete values include: Yes-No, Bad-Fair-Good-Excellent, etc.

[0059] The Reputation Database 115 may hold the dates when the domain name was first or last registered or another value indicating the length of time the domain name has been registered. The longer domain name has been registered, the higher the reputation of the domain name may be.

[0060] The reputation values associated with a domain name itself, a domain name registrant (as appearing in WHOIS records), and a domain name purchaser (a person or entity billed) may differ. For example, the domain name purchaser may purchase domain names A, B, and C. The domain name registrant may be the same for domain names A and B, and different for C. Domain name A may have an “Under Construction” page, domain B may be used for an adult content website and domain C may be used for sending out spam. Even though the reputation ratings for domain name A itself would not indicate adult content or spam, the ratings for the purchaser of the domain name A, may so indicate. Similarly, the reputation ratings of the registrant of the domain name A may indicate adult content, because domain name A has the same registrant as domain name B.

[0061] The domain name registrant reputation values may be calculated as minimum, maximum, average, median, sum, or any other formula from some or all domain names with the same registrant. Similarly, the domain name purchaser reputation values may be calculated as minimum, maximum, average, median, sum, or any other formula from some or all domain names purchased by the purchaser. In effect the reputation associated with the Subjects (registrants, owners, clients, etc.) may cross multiple domain names.

[0062] The Reputation Database 115 may obtain various reputation data from other reputation services, such as SENDERBASE.ORG, Bonded Sender Program, SPAMCOP, “societies” of trusted users, black and white domain/IP/email lists, CLOUDMARK, VERISIGN Verified Domains List, TRUSTe, etc. The variety of reputation data may aid in making better decisions by the Requester 130.

[0063] Besides providing “raw” data in the Reputation Database 115 for the Requester 130 to make decisions, the Registering Entity 105 may provide suggestions or recommendations if a particular domain name, URL, email address, etc. should be trusted, i.e. whitelisting and/or blacklisting domain name, URL, email address, etc.

[0064] The domain name related reputation data the Reputation Database 115 may be digitally signed for authenticity. The data may be signed with a digital certificate by the Registering Entity 105 or by another trusted party. For the purposes of this disclosure terms “digital certificate” and “secure certificate” are equivalents and used interchangeably.

[0065] The Registering Entity 105 may start tracking domain name related reputation voluntarily or after a request from the Subject 125. The Registering Entity 105 may offer the reputation tracking as an additional service to the Registering Entity's clients.

[0066] The Requester 130 may be a person, an entity, or a technological means, such as a computer software, a website, a web service, etc. The system may include one or more Requesters. The data from the Reputation Database 115 may be provided to the Requester 130 via the Presentation Means 120 (links 140 and 150).

[0067] The Presentation Means 120 are means for presenting the data and may be maintained by the Registering Entity 105 and may include DNS records, WHOIS records, a website, a web service, a whitelist, a blacklist, a computer software, an API-based solution or protocol, or any combination thereof. For example, the Registering Entity 105 may post some reputation values in the domain name DNS or WHOIS records or post into DNS or WHOIS a URL link to the location on the network (e.g. Internet website) where the reputation data may be found.

[0068] The domain name related reputation data obtainable through the Presentation Means 120 may be digitally signed for authenticity. The data may be signed with a digital certificate (or secure certificate) by the Registering Entity 105, the Presentation Means 120, or by another trusted party. For example, the reputation data in WHOIS records may be digitally signed by the Registering Entity 105.

[0069] A digital (secure) certificate may serve as the Presentation Means 120. The certificate may contain reputation values (ratings, scores) or one or more URL links, where the reputation values can be found. The reputation values (or links) may be updated every time the certificate is renewed. The certificate may be created or signed by the Registering Entity 105 or created or signed by a certification authority. A digital (secure) certificate may be an SSL certificate.

[0070] In another embodiment of the invention the partners of the Registering Entity 105 may have access to the Reputation Database 115. The Presentation Means 120 in this embodiment may include a system that periodically feeds reputation data to the partners. The reputation data may be in XML (eXtensible Markup Language), character-delimited (e.g. CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or TSV (Tab Separated Values)), fixed length, or other formats.

[0071] The system of the present invention provides a framework, centralized around a Registering Entity, for accessing the reputation data. Any Internet or email user (or automated solution) may find domain name related reputation data through a Registering Entity where the domain name was registered or in domain name WHOIS records as opposed to a variety of disconnected solutions that may exist presently. If a domain name is transferred from one Registering Entity to another, the reputation data may be transferred from one Registering Entity to another as well.

[0072] Alternatively, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 14, the Domain Names Database 110 may be maintained by an entity other than the Registering Entity 105, e.g., by a third party registering entity (a First Registering Entity 1435). The Domain Names Database 110 contains one or more domain names registered through or with the Registering Entity 105 or registered through or with another party.

[0073] FIG. 2 depicts a method in accordance with the teachings of the present invention for tracking domain name related reputation. A Registering Entity may set one or more values in domain name related reputation data to initial values (Step 205). The Registering Entity may change one or more values in domain name related reputation data (Step 210). If continuous tracking of the domain name related reputation is desired (Step 215), then Steps 210 and 215 may be repeated (Step 220).

[0074] The initial values may be set to null, zero, or any other value. The values may be on various scales, for example from 0 to 100, from 0 to infinity, or from −100 to 100, where 0 may represent a domain name with no reputation, etc. The Registering Entity may develop a schedule of points to be awarded for various events associated with the domain name.

[0075] For example, if the Registering Entity receives a legitimate complaint about a spam email message originating from a domain name, the email practices reputation rating (score, value) of the domain name and the email address reputation rating may be reduced by one. If the domain name exists for a year with no complaints, the domain name's overall reputation rating may be raised by 10 points. If the Registering Entity validates the domain name registrant contact information, the overall reputation rating may be raised by 20 points, etc. Additional points may be awarded if the domain name is assigned an SSL certificate issued by a Certification Authority. The rating may be reduced if illegal content is present on the domain name website.

[0076] If the domain name is transferred from one Registering Entity to another, if the registrant was changed, if ownership of the domain name was changed, or if the domain name expires, the ratings may be changed (e.g. reset to their initial values). Changes in the domain name registration information (contact or DNS) may trigger a change of the reputation ratings as well. Optionally, the Registering Entity may provide historical values of the reputation ratings.

[0077] In another embodiment, referring to FIG. 5, domain name related reputation may be tracked from the point when the domain name is getting registered or renewed (point of sale). A registrant, who intends to register a domain name, may visit a Registering Entity's website (Step 505). The registrant is a person or entity, who registers the domain name; it may not be necessarily a person or entity, which appears in the WHOIS records. A Registering Entity may offer the registrant a reputation tracking service (Step 510). The reputation tracking service may be free of charge for the registrant or may be a paid service. If the registrant does not want the reputation tracking service, the Registering Entity will register the domain name (Step 515). If the registrant opts for the reputation tracking service, the Registering Entity will register the domain name (Step 520), may verify the registrant (Step 525), and then set initial reputation values in reputation data (Step 530).

[0078] Verification may include validating information appearing in the WHOIS records or in the private registration records, as well as validating registrant's business records, driver's licenses, or other documents. There may be multiple levels of verification performed. Basic levels may include validating some of the contact information appearing in the WHOIS record or in the private registration records. Advanced levels may include verification of a variety of registrant's documents. More extensive and comprehensive verification levels may result in higher reputation values (assuming the verification was successful).

[0079] In yet another embodiment, if the registrant does not opt for the reputation tracking service, the Registering Entity may still create reputation data for the domain name and populate it with some default values.

[0080] Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 15, a domain name may be registered (Step 1525) through a First Registering Entity 1435 and reputation may be tracked (Steps 205, 210, 215, and 220) by a Second Registering Entity 1405 (a Trusted Registering Entity).

[0081] FIG. 3 illustrates a method for accessing domain name related reputation data after a Requester receives an email message. The method includes the following steps. A Requester receives an email message (Step 305). The Requester identifies a domain name (Step 310). The Requester determines a Registering Entity of the domain name (Step 315). The Requester determines the location of domain name related reputation data (Step 320). The Requester accesses the domain name related reputation data (Step 325). Based on the domain name related reputation data the Requester decides (determines) whether to allow or dismiss the email message (Step 330). Depending on that decision the Requester either allows the email message (Step 335) or dismisses it (Step 340).

[0082] Preferably, the Requester is computer software running in conjunction with an email server or a client email program. In Step 310 the Requester may identify a domain name from an email address of a sender. Additional steps may be taken to ensure that the email address of the sender was not forged (spoofed). If the Registering Entity in Step 315 is a Registrar, then the Registrar may be determined from the Registry's WHOIS records. Referring to Step 320, the location of the domain name related reputation data may be, inter alia, a database, a website, a web service, WHOIS records, DNS records, a digital (secure) certificate, etc. The location of the domain name related reputation data may be a predetermined location (e.g. http://reputation.godaddy.com) or may be provided by a link or reference. The link or reference to the location may be, inter alia, a URL link, a DNS address, an IP address, a computer port or any combination thereof. For example, a URL link to the website where the reputation data is located may be specified in the WHOIS records. If the location of the domain name related reputation data is specified in the Registry's WHOIS records, then Step 315 (determining the Registering Entity) may be omitted. Step 320 (determining the location of reputation data) may include the following sub-steps: determine a location of the Registrar's WHOIS data from the Registry's WHOIS (e.g. whois.godaddy.com) and then obtain a URL to the domain name related reputation data from the Registrar's WHOIS.

[0083] The Requester decides (determines) whether the values in the domain name related reputation data are appropriate to allow the email message. The domain name related reputation data may have multiple values (ratings); it is likely that the rating(s) for email practices will be considered by the Requester. If the Requester decides to allow the email message, it may be placed into the user's Inbox. If the email message is not allowed, it may be deleted or placed in a special quarantine mailbox (e.g. “Spam”, “Junk mail,” “Bulk mail,” etc.). Additionally, links to the webpages in the email message may be checked for their domain name related reputation and this information may be used in the decision of whether to allow the email message.

[0084] Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 16, the Requester may determine a Trusted Registering Entity for the domain name (Step 1615). The Trusted Registering Entity may be different from the Registering Entity with which the domain name is registered. The Trusted Registering Entity may be specified in DNS records, WHOIS records, or in the digital certificate associated with the domain name. Also, the Requester may query a commonly known Trusted Registering Entities to determine if they have reputation information for the domain name.

[0085] Similarly to FIG. 3, the Requester may use domain name related reputation to determine if the Requester should visit a URL link. Referring to FIG. 4, a Requester intends to visit a URL (Step 405). The Requester identifies a domain name from the URL (Step 410). The Requester determines a Registering Entity of the domain name (Step 415). The Requester determines the location of domain name related reputation data (Step 420). The Requester accesses the domain name related reputation data (Step 425). Based on the domain name related reputation data the Requester decides (determines) whether the Requester should visit the URL (Step 430). If the Requester decides to visit the URL, it may do so (Step 435).

[0086] In this method the Requester may be computer software working in conjunction with an Internet browser. If the domain name and/or the URL have a low reputation, the webpage located at the URL may be blocked. Alternatively, the computer software may give the user a warning that the domain name and/or the URL have a low reputation. The user may then decide whether to visit the URL.

[0087] Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 17, the Requester may determine a Trusted Registering Entity for the domain name (Step 1715). The Trusted Registering Entity may be different from the Registering Entity with which the domain name is registered.

[0088] Each URL may have its own reputation rating. This is especially advantageous when multiple parties are responsible for the content of a website associated with the domain name.

[0089] The Registering Entity or another party may publish domain name related reputation data in the DNS or WHOIS records. The reputation values (ratings, scores) or one or more URL links, where the reputation values can be found, may be published in the DNS or WHOIS records. The party that tries to access domain name related reputation data may obtain it, inter alia, from a predetermined URL on the Internet or from the DNS or WHOIS records. One embodiment of the method for publishing the domain name related reputation in the WHOIS records includes the following steps. The Registering Entity collects domain name related information and forms domain name related reputation data. Then, the Registering Entity stores the domain name related reputation data in the WHOIS records.

[0090] The domain name related reputation may also be used for presenting search engines' results. Typically, the search engines' results presented to the network users (or automated solutions) are based on their relevance (e.g. how often search terms are found on a webpage), date last updated, number of links to that webpage, etc. In the method of the present invention the network search engines may use reputation ratings as one of the parameters to be considered for sorting or ordering search results. Alternatively, links to the domain names with a low reputation may be excluded from the search results. An embodiment of the method for presenting search engine results based on the domain name related reputation includes the following steps. An Inquirer posts a search query to a search engine. The search engine forms search engine results based, at least in part, on the domain name related reputation and returns the results to the Inquirer. The Inquirer may be a network user or an automated service querying the search engine. Search engine results may include links to websites, webpages, or documents on the networks. The networks may include the Internet.

[0091] Alternatively or additionally, reputation ratings (scores, values) may be shown next to (or in conjunction with) the links in the search engine results. Thus, allowing the network user to determine whether to visit the link or not. Further, the search engines may use domain name related reputation from various databases and sources, including those maintained by the Registering Entities.

[0092] The search engine may store reputation data with the links to the network documents and webpages. This may speed up the process of returning the search engine results to the Inquirer.

[0093] An alternative embodiment of the system of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. The system may include a Registering Entity 105, a Domain Names Database 110, a Reputation Database 115, a Presentation Means 120, a Subject 125, and a Certification Authority 630. The Registering Entity 105 may be a domain name Registry, a Registrar of domain names, or a Reseller of a Registrar. The Registering Entity 105 may be an accredited ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Registry or Registrar. Examples of ICANN-accredited Registrars include GoDaddy.com, Wild West Domains, etc. The Registering Entity 105 maintains the Domain Names Database 110. The Domain Names Database 110 contains one or more domain names registered through or with the Registering Entity 105 or registered through or with another party. The Subject 125 is a person or an entity associated with one or more domain names registered through the Registering Entity 105.

[0094] The Certification Authority 630 may use data saved in the Reputation Database 115 to verify subscribers requesting secure certificates from the Certification Authority 630. Alternatively or additionally, the Certification Authority 630 may refuse to issue a secure certificate to a subscriber (or associated domain name) with a low reputation.

[0095] Alternatively, the Certification Authority 630 may have direct access to the Reputation Database 115 and/or the Domain Names Database 110. The Certification Authority 630 and the Registering Entity 105 may be the same or related companies, or may be unrelated, but cooperate with each other.

[0096] Further, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the Domain Names Database 110 may be maintained by an entity other than the Registering Entity 105, e.g., by a third party registering entity (a First Registering Entity 1435). The Domain Names Database 110 contains one or more domain names registered through or with the Registering Entity 105 or registered through or with another party.

[0097] FIG. 7 illustrates a prior art method for issuing a secure certificate. A Subscriber requests a secure certificate from a Certification Authority (Step 705). The Certification Authority verifies the Subscriber (Step 710). If the Subscriber was verified successfully (Step 715), the Certification Authority issues the secure certificate (Step 725). If verification was unsuccessful, the issuance of the secure certificate will be denied (Step 720).

[0098] FIG. 8 shows a sample method for issuing a secure certificate using domain name related reputation. A Subscriber requests a secure certificate from a Certification Authority (Step 705). The Certification Authority obtains a Subscriber's domain name related reputation (Step 830). If the Subscriber's domain name related reputation is satisfactory (Step 835), the Certification Authority issues the secure certificate (Step 725). If the reputation is not 21 satisfactory, the issuance of the secure certificate will be denied (Step 720). If the reputation is represented by a numeric value, the reputation may be considered satisfactory if it exceeds a predetermined value.

[0099] FIG. 9 shows another sample method for issuing a secure certificate using domain name related reputation. A Subscriber requests a secure certificate from a Certification Authority (Step 705). The Certification Authority verifies the Subscriber (Step 710). If the Subscriber was not verified successfully (Step 715), the Certification Authority denies the secure certificate (Step 720). If the Subscriber was verified successfully (Step 715), the Certification Authority obtains a Subscriber's domain name related reputation (Step 830). If the Subscriber's domain name related reputation is satisfactory (Step 835), the Certification Authority issues the secure certificate (Step 725). If the reputation is not satisfactory, the issuance of the secure certificate will be denied (Step 720).

[0100] FIG. 10 illustrates another sample method for issuing a secure certificate. A Subscriber requests a secure certificate from a Certification Authority (Step 705). The Certification Authority obtains a Subscriber's domain name related reputation (Step 830). The Certification Authority verifies the Subscriber using a level of verification determined as a function of the Subscriber's reputation (Step 1040). Typically, the better the Subscriber's reputation, the less rigorous the verification needs to be. If the Subscriber was verified successfully (Step 715), the Certification Authority issues the secure certificate (Step 725). If verification was unsuccessful, the issuance of the secure certificate will be denied (Step 720).

[0101] FIG. 11 illustrates another sample method for issuing a secure certificate. A Subscriber requests a secure certificate from a Certification Authority (Step 705). The Certification Authority obtains a registration date of the Subscriber's domain name (Step 1145). The Certification Authority verifies the Subscriber using a level of verification determined as a function of the registration date of the Subscriber's domain name (Step 1150). Typically, the earlier the registration date, the less rigorous the verification needs to be. If the Subscriber was verified successfully (Step 715), the Certification Authority issues the secure certificate (Step 725). If verification was unsuccessful, the issuance of the secure certificate will be denied (Step 720). This method may be performed without accessing the reputation database as described earlier in the specification.

[0102] Alternatively or additionally, the level of verification may be a function of a date of last renewal, a date of last transfer, a date of last changes in the WHOIS records, etc.

[0103] Further, as shown in FIGS. 18-21, the type of the allowable secure certificate may be determined from the domain name related reputation data (Step 1855). The certificate type may include: Extended Validation (EV), regular validation, domain validation only, Server-Gated Cryptography (SGC), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Secure Site, Managed PKI, Wildcard, Pro, Standard, Turbo, Quick, Basic certificates, etc. Typically, the higher reputation ratings would allow for a more advanced certificate type.

[0104] Other embodiments and uses of this invention will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. The specification and examples given should be considered exemplary only, and it is contemplated that the appended claims will cover any other such embodiments or modifications as fall within the true scope of the invention.

[0105] The Abstract accompanying this specification is provided to enable the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of the technical disclosure and in no way intended for defining, determining, or limiting the present invention or any of its embodiments.