More than 500 new .ie domains registered in Mayo this year
Businesses, organisations, clubs and individuals in Mayo registered 554 new .ie domains in the first half of 2022, according to new figures from .IE, Ireland’s country domain manager.
The number represents a 20.7% growth in new .ie domain registrations in Mayo compared to pre-pandemic 2019.
The .IE Domain Profile Report H1 2022, which analyses the .ie database over the period from January 1 to June 30, shows that 2,352 new .ie domains were registered in Connacht and 23,809 in total on the island of Ireland.
At the end of June, the total .ie database stood at 332,642 domains.
In the west, Mayo recorded the largest increase in new .ie domain registrations in H1 2022 compared to H1 2019.
Identifying with place proved very popular for new .ie registrations in H1 2022, with the top keywords in new .ie domain registrations being ‘Ireland’ and ‘Mayo’.
“This latest .IE Domain Profile Report signals that SMEs in Mayo are using their .ie online identity and their websites as a core part of their business post-pandemic, ensuring that their customers can continue to avail of hybrid business models by seamlessly linking their physical premises with their digital presence,” said David Curtin, chief executive of .IE.
He added: “Businesses are using their websites as a core part of their business post-pandemic, seamlessly linking their physical premises with their digital presence. This means that their customers can enjoy the experience of shopping in-store, as well as the convenience and ease of e-commerce.”
The .ie domain now accounts for 53% of all top-level domains hosted in Ireland. In comparison, .com accounts for 30% of all domains, followed by .uk (7%) and .eu (2%). Ninety-one per cent of all .ie domains are registered on the island of Ireland.
Just under half of all .ie domains (48%) have a content-rich website, with almost one in four (23%) of these e-commerce enabled, including features such as automated bookings and reservations.
CYBERSECURITY
However, there are some cybersecurity concerns with online transactions. .IE, through the services of Netcraft and with cooperation from the Registrar community, identified 211 cybersecurity attacks in the six months to 30 June and 386 in the 13-month period from June 1 2021 to June 30 2022. The most common cybersecurity attacks during H1 2022 were phishing (52%), malware (17%), web shell (13%) and shopping site skimmer (8%).
Sixty-five per cent of content-rich .ie websites are now secured with a security certificate. A much smaller percentage of .ie domains use other cybersecurity features, such as DNSSEC (0.17%), which adds an additional layer of cryptographic security to a domain, and Registry Lock (0.02%), which protects a domain from malicious or accidental changes.
“As digital usage expands rapidly, keeping the .ie namespace safe from cyber criminals is a key focus for us,” explained Mr. Curtin. “Through our policies and protocols, we proactively tackle technical DNS abuse in the .ie namespace and we are dedicated to fighting malware and phishing. Together with our partners, we are enabling a better Ireland online through our technical and policy-based guardianship of the national critical infrastructure.
“We would continue to urge all SMEs in Mayo, particularly businesses and those with a responsibility to protect sensitive information, to do as much as they can to protect their customers and mitigate the risk of their internal systems falling foul of cyberattacks.
“The measures we take, including manually reviewing the evidence provided by new customers, to validate identity and connection to Ireland, means that the level of security threat to .ie websites is a lot lower than .com. Collectively, we cannot become complacent when it comes to improving or enhancing our national cybersecurity.”
Read the .IE Domain Profile Report H1 2022 in full here.