Malicious website domains are a headache for organizations to deal with, mainly because they’re easy for hackers to put up, but difficult for security and risk teams to successfully take down. Conducting a website takedown requires time and resources, not just to contact the right people (whether it’s lawyers, domain registrars, or regulatory groups), but also to detect the threat, and decide whether a fake domain is active and truly in need of takedown efforts.
In the first part of the website takedown blog series, we took you through the five not-so-easy steps required to take down a malicious website manually. If you read the piece, you know manual website takedowns are doable if time and patience are on your side, and if you’re not faced with any of the tricky situations that we outlined. But if you don’t have the time or the patience, or if you simply have too many sites to take down, an easier, more scalable solution is best.
3 steps to conduct a malicious website takedown
A clear takedown process matters for more than convenience. When phishing domains, malicious links, and scam sites stay live, attackers use them to steal customer credentials and take over accounts.
Lookalike sites also erode customer trust and can expose visitors to malware.
Here’s how a streamlined phishing takedown service handles the work.
The manual process behind conducting a website takedown is not your only option. Here are the steps to combating malicious websites, the easy way.
Step 1: Deploy continuous domain monitoring and detection
Selecting the right domain monitoring and takedown platform changes how security teams handle external threats.
Bolster AI equips organizations with continuous detection to analyze impersonation attempts and domain risks.
The platform scans internet data to maintain an accurate view of threats targeting your brand. Results appear in a real-time dashboard where typosquats and lookalike domains are surfaced.
When phishing pages or other malicious content are detected, Bolster AI evaluates the threat and queues the site for takedown.
If a domain is registered but has no live content, Bolster AI monitors it for signs of weaponization, so a takedown can start as soon as phishing or malware appears.
Step 2: Sit back and watch the program conduct website takedowns
Once a site is confirmed malicious, the takedown request has to reach the right registrar or hosting provider with enough evidence for them to act.
Bolster AI simplifies this by compiling the necessary evidence and submitting structured takedown requests to abuse desks and registrars.
API integrations and abuse desk reporting
Direct integrations: Bolster AI maintains operational relationships with hosting providers and registrars, using direct API integrations to submit evidence for swift removal. Structured abuse submissions: When direct APIs are unavailable, Bolster AI delivers formatted evidence directly to hosting provider abuse boxes to accelerate phishing site removal.
Step 3: Monitor takedown success
Reporting takedown results to leadership and budget owners shows the value of the program.
Bolster AI’s dashboard includes takedown insights, which make those results easy to share.
Bolster AI has taken down well over 100,000 malicious websites globally. That track record comes from highly accurate evidence collection (our false-positive rate is 1 in 100,000), automation, and trusted global relationships. Once a site is removed, monitoring continues so any attempt to relaunch it is caught.
Scaling your website takedown process
These three simple steps are easily repeated, scaling to however big a problem your organization faces.
Not every takedown takes the same effort to resolve. Phishing sites exhibiting active signs of credential theft are the most straightforward. However, sites that involve trademark infringement or brand impersonation require tailored evidence and structured documentation.
Here, Bolster AI collects detailed evidence (including logo abuse detection and full-page visual proof) to support formal removal requests. We can also issue DMCA takedown notices to strengthen a takedown request. DMCA notices are an effective tool under U.S. jurisdiction, with resolutions typically occurring within a few days.
When dealing with uncooperative hosting providers or international infrastructure, Bolster AI uses established global anti-abuse relationships to improve the odds of removal where manual efforts would stall.
Website takedowns: No longer a guessing game
While taking a website down can be tricky, it can be even trickier to keep it down. It’s very easy for a bad actor to simply re-host the website on another provider network. At this point, the endless whac-a-mole™ game is invoked, with the site perpetually being taken down only to re-emerge. Our system is built to break this cycle. Here’s how:
Continuous monitoring: For every site taken down, the system will continue to monitor the internet for signs of re-occurrence. If the site does re-emerge, anywhere globally, we will invoke our takedown process automatically. This causes bad actors to lose interest, at least with that particular domain.
Submissions to global blocklists: In addition to executing a site takedown, our system also submits the site address to global blocklists including anti-phishing working groups, safe browsing communities, and publicly available threat intel feeds. This serves as added protection, so browsers can warn users away from a site that may still be up.
Read More: Top Phishing Threat Intel Feeds
Start Utilizing an Automated Domain Management Technology Today
Phishing and fraud happen fast online, and your brand can quickly come under attack. So, do you wait for that day or put a program in place that gives you advance warning? When a malicious site needs to come down, the choice is between handling it manually and working with an experienced takedown provider. Bolster AI detects lookalike domains and phishing sites and removes them, with automation carrying the volume and Bolster AI analysts handling the cases that need judgment. Request a demo to see how Bolster AI handles website takedowns for threats targeting your own brand.
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To learn more about domain monitoring, read our whitepaper: Guide to Domain Monitoring and Remediation
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