We’re thrilled to announce a significant upgrade to one of our market-leading services, Premium DNS Database Download. We’re expanding the coverage of our full database files from 90 to 365 days, giving users access to as many as 116 billion historical DNS records as of Q2 2024.

What Is Premium DNS Database Download?

Premium DNS Database Download is WhoisXML API’s flagship historical DNS database service, which offers access to downloadable files containing various record types (i.e., A, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, PTR, and AAAA).

These files are available via various subscription options, allowing you to choose the update frequency that best suits your needs—daily, weekly, monthly, or the full database snapshot.

What’s New with the Premium DNS Database Download Upgrade?

Extending the full database files to encompass 365 days or a full year of historical DNS data, also known as “passive DNS (pDNS) data,” significantly increases the amount of data available across all record types.

As a result, WhoisXML API can now enable users to identify and track a much larger number of unique Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) as seen in their historical DNS records.

How Many Records Are Now Available?

The number of records available for each record type following the upgrade, measured at its peak in April 2024, is shown in the table below.

Why the 365-Day Time Frame Limit?

There is a limit to how far back full database file coverage can go since the sheer volume of historical DNS data generated across the entire domain space is truly gigantic. Recording all of this information requires enormous storage and processing capability. Therefore, establishing a time frame for how far back we track historical data is necessary to ensure efficient operation and service delivery for our customers.

Who Will Benefit from This Upgrade?

This coverage upgrade is expected to be particularly valuable for organizations with cybersecurity use cases, such as:

• Attack surface management (ASM): Security platforms focusing on ASM and related capabilities can leverage a year’s worth of DNS data to boost external asset discovery and monitoring processes.
• Detection and response: Access to a richer pool of pDNS data allows security teams to identify patterns, establish baselines, and detect anomalies faster and more effectively.
• Cyber threat intelligence: Extended historical DNS data can help track adversary tactics, identify both new and old domains used in malicious campaigns, and potentially predict future attacks.
• Brand protection: Businesses can more effectively safeguard their brands by uncovering instances of domain infringement and phishing attempts across a wider historical DNS window.

Feel free to contact us for more information about Premium DNS Database and how it can empower your security processes and solutions.