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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Clustering and the Weekend Effect: Recommendations for the Use of Top Domain Lists in Security Research

Authors : Walter Rweyemamu, Tobias Lauinger, Christo Wilson, William Robertson, Engin Kirda

Published in: Passive and Active Measurement

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Top domain rankings (e.g., Alexa) are commonly used in security research, such as to survey security features or vulnerabilities of “relevant” websites. Due to their central role in selecting a sample of sites to study, an inappropriate choice or use of such domain rankings can introduce unwanted biases into research results. We quantify various characteristics of three top domain lists that have not been reported before. For example, the weekend effect in Alexa and Umbrella causes these rankings to change their geographical diversity between the workweek and the weekend. Furthermore, up to 91% of ranked domains appear in alphabetically sorted clusters containing up to 87k domains of presumably equivalent popularity. We discuss the practical implications of these findings, and propose novel best practices regarding the use of top domain lists in the security community.

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previous chapter A First Look at QNAME Minimization in the Domain Name System
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Metadata
Title
Clustering and the Weekend Effect: Recommendations for the Use of Top Domain Lists in Security Research
Authors
Walter Rweyemamu
Tobias Lauinger
Christo Wilson
William Robertson
Engin Kirda
Copyright Year
2019
Book
Passive and Active Measurement

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15985-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-15986-3

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15986-3_11

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