Article in ssrn electronic Journal · July 015 doi: 10. 2139/ssrn. 2634590 citations 32 reads 1,108 author: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Figure 2: New Malicious Web Domains
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Number of Malicious 
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eb Domains per 1,000,000 Units 
Malicious Web Domains 
Malicious Web Domains per 1,000,000 Internet Users 
Malicious Web Domains per 1,000,000 Domain Names 
Malicious Web Domains per 1,000,000 Websites 
Figure 3 looks at just the comparison of the absolute 
number of malicious domain names and the trend in 
malicious domains normalized around the total number 
of domains. The appearance that these two indicators 
track together over time suggests that there is a fairly 
static proportion of all web domains that are malicious. 
However, this initial impression is misleading in the 
sense that the two sets of numbers are changing at very 
different speeds. The two trend lines in Figure 3 show 
that between 2008 and 2014 both the absolute and the 
normalized trends have been improving. Comparing the 
rate at which the situation is improving tells a different 
story. The absolute number of new malicious domains 
has fallen from 55,389 malicious domains in 2008 to 29,927 

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GLOBAL COMMISSION ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE PAPER SERIES: NO. 16 — JuLy 2015 
10 • CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION • CHATHAM HOuSE
malicious domains in 2014, a decline of 45.96 percent. 
In contrast, the normalized numbers fell from 312.93 
malicious domains per 1,000,000 domains in 2008 to only 
103.91 malicious domains per 1,000,000 domains in 2014, 
which amounts to a decline of 66.79 percentage points. As 
with the new vulnerabilities, the data from Figures 2 and 3 
support the idea that the absolute numbers overrepresent 
the insecurity of cyberspace compared to the normalized 
trends by showing the picture improving more slowly 
than is actually the case.