Intelligence Categories

Talos, Cisco’s Security Intelligence and Research Group, constantly tracks a broad set of attributes to evaluate conclusions about a given host. The below tables contain alphabetical listings and descriptions of the standard categories used to classify website content and the standard threat categories used to classify attack types.


Updates and Blog Posts

Category Abbreviation Code Description Example Urls
Education edu 1001 Education-related, such as schools, colleges, universities, teaching materials, and teachers' resources, technical and vocational training, online training, education issues and policies, financial aid, school funding, standards and testing. http://www.education.com http://www.greatschools.org
Games game 1007 Various card games, board games, word games, and video games, combat games, sports games, downloadable games, game reviews, cheat sheets, computer games and Internet games, such as role-playing games. http://www.games.com http://www.shockwave.com
Job Search job 1004 Career advice, resume writing and interviewing skills, job placement services, job databanks, permanent and temporary employment agencies, employer websites. http://www.careerbuilder.com http://www.monster.com
Search Engines and Portals srch 1020 Search engines and other initial points of access to information on the Internet. http://www.bing.com http://www.google.com
Shopping shop 1005 Bartering, online purchasing, coupons and free offers, general office supplies, online catalogs, online malls. http://www.amazon.com http://www.shopping.com
Sports and Recreation sprt 1008 All sports, professional and amateur, recreational activities, fishing, fantasy sports, public parks, amusement parks, water parks, theme parks, spas. http://www.espn.com http://www.recreation.gov
Society and Culture scty 1010 Family and relationships, ethnicity, social organizations, genealogy, seniors, child-care. http://www.childcareaware.org http://www.familysearch.org
Arts art 1002 Galleries and exhibitions, artists and art, photography, literature and books, performing arts and theater, musicals, ballet, design, architecture. Cinema and television are classified as Entertainment. http://www.rosenthalfineart.com http://www.nga.gov
Hate Speech hate 1016 Websites promoting hatred, intolerance, or discrimination on the basis of social group, color, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, sites promoting racism, sexism, racist theology, hate music, neo-Nazi organizations, supremacism, Holocaust denial. http://www.kkk.com http://www.aryanunity.com
Filter Avoidance filt 1025 Promoting and aiding undetectable and anonymous web usage, including cgi, php and glype anonymous proxy services. http://www.bypassschoolfilter.com http://www.filterbypass.com
Finance fnnc 1015 Primarily financial in nature, such as accounting practices and accountants, taxation, taxes, banking, insurance, investing, the national economy, personal finance involving insurance of all types, credit cards, retirement and estate planning, loans, mortgages. Stock and shares are classified as Online Trading. http://www.finance.yahoo.com http://www.bankofamerica.com
Reference ref 1017 City and state guides, maps, time, reference sources, dictionaries, libraries. http://www.wikipedia.org http://www.yellowpages.com
Social Science socs 1014 Sciences and history related to society, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, history, linguistics, geography, philosophy, psychology, women's studies. http://www.archaeology.org http://www.anthropology.net
Business and Industry busi 1019 Marketing, commerce, corporations, business practices, workforce, human resources, transportation, payroll, security and venture capital, office supplies, industrial equipment (process equipment), machines and mechanical systems, heating equipment, cooling equipment, materials handling equipment, packaging equipment, manufacturing: solids handling, metal fabrication, construction and building, passenger transportation, commerce, industrial design, construction, building materials, shipping and freight (freight services, trucking, freight forwarders, truckload carriers, freight and transportation brokers, expedited services, load and freight matching, track and trace, rail shipping, ocean shipping, road feeder services, moving and storage). http://www.freightcenter.com http://www.ge.com
Infrastructure and Content Delivery Networks infr 1018 Content delivery infrastructure and dynamically generated content, websites that cannot be classified more specifically because they are secured or otherwise difficult to classify. http://www.akamai.net http://www.webstat.net
Government and Law gov 1011 Government websites, foreign relations, news and information relating to government and elections, information relating to the field of law, such as attorneys, law firms, law publications, legal reference material, courts, dockets, and legal associations, legislation and court decisions, civil rights issues, immigration, patents and copyrights, information relating to law enforcement and correctional systems, crime reporting, law enforcement, and crime statistics. http://www.usa.gov http://www.law.com
Science and Technology sci 1012 Science and technology, such as aerospace, electronics, engineering, mathematics, and other similar subjects, space exploration, meteorology, geography, energy (fossil, nuclear, renewable), communications (telephones, telecommunications). http://www.physorg.com http://www.science.gov
Advertisements adv 1027 Banner and pop-up advertisements that often accompany a web page, other advertising websites that provide advertisement content. Advertising services and sales are classified as Business and Industry. http://www.adforce.com http://www.doubleclick.com
Lingerie and Swimsuits ling 1031 Intimate apparel and swimwear, especially when modeled. http://www.swimsuits.com http://www.victoriassecret.com
Lotteries lotr 1034 Sweepstakes, contests and state-sponsored lotteries. http://www.calottery.com http://www.flalottery.com
Online Communities comm 1024 Affinity groups, special interest groups, web newsgroups, message boards. Excludes websites classified as Professional Networking or Social Networking. http://www.reddit.com http://www.stackexchange.com
Online Trading trad 1028 Online brokerages, websites that enable the user to trade stocks online, information relating to the stock market, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, brokers, stock analysis and commentary, stock screens, stock charts, IPOs, stock splits. Services for spread betting on stocks and shares are classified as Gambling. Other financial services are classified as Finance. http://www.tdameritrade.com http://www.etrade.com
Illegal Activities ilac 1022 Promoting crime, such as stealing, fraud, illegally accessing telephone networks, computer viruses, bombs, and anarchy, websites depicting murder and suicide as well as explaining ways to commit them. http://www.ekran.no http://pyrobin.com
Child Abuse Content cprn 1064 Worldwide illegal child sexual abuse content.
Non-sexual Nudity nsn 1060 Nudism and nudity, naturism, nudist camps, artistic nudes. http://www.1001fessesproject.com http://www.naturistsociety.com
Dining and Drinking food 1061 Eating and drinking establishments, restaurants, bars, taverns, and pubs, restaurant guides and reviews. http://www.zagat.com http://www.experiencethepub.com
News news 1058 News, headlines, newspapers, television stations, magazines, weather, ski conditions. http://www.cnn.com http://news.bbc.co.uk
File Transfer Services fts 1071 File transfer services with the primary purpose of providing download services and hosted file sharing. http://www.sharefile.com http://www.wetransfer.com
Software Updates swup 1053 Websites that host updates for software packages. http://www.softwarepatch.com http://www.windowsupdate.com
Social Networking snet 1069 Social networking. See also Professional Networking. http://www.facebook.com http://www.twitter.com
Gambling gamb 1049 Casinos and online gambling, bookmakers and odds, gambling advice, competitive racing in a gambling context, sports booking, sports gambling, services for spread betting on stocks and shares. Websites dealing with gambling addiction are classified as Health and Medicine. Government-run lotteries are classified as Lotteries. http://www.888.com http://www.gambling.com
Freeware and Shareware free 1068 Providing downloads of free and shareware software. http://www.freewarehome.com http://www.filehippo.com
Illegal Downloads ildl 1084 Providing the ability to download software or other materials, serial numbers, key generators, and tools for bypassing software protection in violation of copyright agreements. Torrents are classified as Peer File Transfer. http://www.keygenninja.com http://www.rootscrack.com
SaaS and B2B saas 1080 Web portals for online business services. http://www.netsuite.com http://www.salesforce.com
Humor lol 1079 Jokes, sketches, comics and other humorous content. Adult humor likely to offend is classified as Adult. http://www.pun.me http://www.jokes.com
Safe for Kids kids 1057 Directed at, and specifically approved for, young children. http://www.discoverykids.com http://www.nickjr.com
Peer File Transfer p2p 1056 Peer-to-peer file request websites. This does not track the file transfers themselves. http://www.bittorrent.com http://www.torrentdownloads.me
Internet Telephony voip 1067 Telephonic services using the Internet. http://www.skype.com http://www.getvoca.com
Astrology astr 1074 Astrology, horoscope, fortune telling, numerology, psychic advice, tarot. http://www.astro.com http://www.astrology.com
Cheating and Plagiarism plag 1051 Promoting cheating and selling written work, such as term papers, for plagiarism. http://www.bestessays.com http://www.superiorpapers.com
Computer Security csec 1065 Offering security products and services for corporate and home users. http://www.computersecurity.com http://www.symantec.com
Dating date 1055 Dating, online personals, matrimonial agencies. http://www.eharmony.com http://www.match.com
Mobile Phones cell 1070 Short Message Services (SMS), ringtones and mobile phone downloads. Cellular carrier websites are included in the Business and Industry category. http://www.textanywhere.com/ http://www.zedge.net
Hacking hack 1050 Discussing ways to bypass the security of websites, software, and computers. http://www.hackthissite.org http://www.gohacking.com
Politics pol 1083 Websites of politicians, political parties, news and information on politics, elections, democracy, and voting. http://www.politics.com http://www.gp.org
Online Storage and Backup osb 1066 Offsite and peer-to-peer storage for backup, sharing, and hosting. http://www.adrive.com http://www.dropbox.com
Pornography porn 1054 Sexually explicit text or depictions. Includes explicit anime and cartoons, general explicit depictions, other fetish material, explicit chat rooms, sex simulators, strip poker, adult movies, lewd art, web-based explicit email. http://www.redtube.com http://www.youporn.com
Real Estate rest 1045 Information that would support the search for real estate, office and commercial space, real estate listings, such as rentals, apartments, and homes, house building. http://www.realtor.com http://www.zillow.com
Religion rel 1086 Religious content, information about religions, religious communities. http://www.religionfacts.com http://www.religioustolerance.org
Web-based Email mail 1038 Public web-based email services. Websites enabling individuals to access their company or organizations email service are classified as Organizational Email. http://mail.yahoo.com http://outlook.com
Streaming Audio aud 1073 Real-time streaming audio content including Internet radio and audio feeds. http://www.live-radio.net http://www.shoutcast.com
Streaming Video vid 1072 Real-time streaming video including Internet television, web casts, and video sharing. http://www.hulu.com http://www.youtube.com
Transportation trns 1044 Personal transportation, information about cars and motorcycles, shopping for new and used cars and motorcycles, car clubs, boats, airplanes, recreational vehicles (RVs), and other similar items. Note, car and motorcycle racing is classified as Sports and Recreation. http://www.cars.com http://www.motorcycles.com
Travel trvl 1046 Business and personal travel, travel information, travel resources, travel agents, vacation packages, cruises, lodging and accommodation, travel transportation, flight booking, airfares, car rental, vacation homes. http://www.expedia.com http://www.lonelyplanet.com
Web Hosting whst 1037 Website hosting, bandwidth services. http://www.bluehost.com http://www.godaddy.com
Chat and Instant Messaging chat 1040 Web-based instant messaging and chat rooms. http://www.icq.com http://www.e-chat.co
Professional Networking pnet 1089 Social networking for the purpose of career or professional development. See also Social Networking. http://www.linkedin.com http://www.europeanpwn.net
Paranormal prnm 1101 UFOs, ghosts, cryptid, telekenesis, urban legends and myths. http://www.ghoststudy.com http://www.ufocasebook.com
Non-governmental Organizations ngo 1087 Non-governmental organizations such as clubs, lobbies, communities, non-profit organizations and labor unions. http://www.panda.org http://www.unions.org
Auctions auct 1088 Online and offline auctions, auction houses, and classified advertisements. http://www.craigslist.com http://www.ebay.com
Photo Search and Images img 1090 Facilitating the storing and searching for, images, photographs, and clip-art. http://www.flickr.com http://www.photobucket.com
Entertainment ent 1093 Details or discussion of films, music and bands, television, celebrities and fan websites, entertainment news, celebrity gossip, entertainment venues. Compare the Arts category. http://www.eonline.com http://www.ew.com
Online Meetings meet 1100 Online meetings, desktop sharing, remote access and other tools that facilitate multi-location collaboration. http://www.join.me http://www.teamviewer.com
Parked Domains park 1092 Websites that monetize traffic from the domain using paid listings from an ad network, or are owned by 'squatters' hoping to sell the domain name for a profit. These also include fake search websites which return paid ad links. http://www.domainzaar.com http://www.cricketbuzz.com
Dynamic and Residential dyn 1091 IP addresses of broadband links that usually indicates users attempting to access their home network, for example for a remote session to a home computer. http://109.60.192.55
Personal Sites pers 1081 Websites about and from private individuals, personal homepage servers, websites with personal contents, personal blogs with no particular theme. http://www.blogmaverick.com http://www.stallman.org
Web Page Translation tran 1063 Translation of web pages between languages. http://babelfish.com http://translate.google.com
Extreme extr 1075 Material of a sexually violent or criminal nature, violence and violent behavior, tasteless, often gory photographs, such as autopsy photos, photos of crime scenes, crime and accident victims, excessive obscene material, shock websites. http://www.car-accidents.com http://www.crime-scene-photos.com
Sex Education sxed 1052 Factual websites dealing with sex, sexual health, contraception, pregnancy. http://www.avert.org http://www.scarleteen.com
Adult adlt 1006 Directed at adults, but not necessarily pornographic. May include adult clubs (strip clubs, swingers clubs, escort services, strippers), general information about sex, non-pornographic in nature, genital piercing, adult products or greeting cards, information about sex not in the context of health or disease. http://www.adultentertainmentexpo.com http://www.sincerelynot.com
Digital Postcards card 1082 Enabling sending of digital postcards and e-cards. http://www.hallmarkecards.com http://www.bluemountain.com
DIY Projects diy 1097 Guidance and information to create, improve, modify, decorate and repair something without the aid of experts or professionals. http://www.diy-tips.co.uk http://www.thisoldhouse.com
Military mil 1099 Military, such as the armed forces, military bases, military organizations, anti-terrorism. http://www.goarmy.com http://www.todaysmilitary.com
Tobacco tob 1078 Pro-tobacco websites, tobacco manufacturers, pipes and smoking products (not marketed for illegal drug use). Tobacco addiction is classified as Health and Medicine. http://www.bat.com http://www.tobacco.org
Hunting hunt 1098 Professional or sport hunting, gun clubs and other hunting related sites. http://www.bulletsafaris.com http://mfha.org
Personal VPN pvpn 1102 Virtual private network (VPN) sites or tools that are typically for personal use,and, may or may not be approved for corporate usage. http://www.openvpn.net http://www.torvpn.com
Organizational Email pem 1085 Websites used to access business email (often via Outlook Web Access). http://mail.zoho.com http://webmail.edmc.edu
Not Actionable nact 1103 Sites that have been inspected but are unreachable or do not have enough content to be assigned a category.
Web Cache and Archives cach 1108 Cached or archived web content often stored for preservation or to decrease load times. http://archive.org http://webcache.googleusercontent.com
Nature and Conservation ncon 1106 Sites related to natural resources; ecology and conservation; forests; wilderness; plants; flowers; forest conservation; forest, wilderness, and forestry practices; forest management (reforestation, forest protection, conservation, harvesting, forest health, thinning, and prescribed burning); agricultural practices (agriculture, gardening, horticulture, landscaping, planting, weed control, irrigation, pruning, and harvesting); pollution issues (air quality, hazardous waste, pollution prevention, recycling, waste management, water quality, and the environmental cleanup industry). http://nature.org http://thepottedgarden.co.uk
Recipes and Food reci 1105 Sites dedicated to sharing or discussing information about cooking, recipes, and food or non-alcoholic beverages; cultural aspects of cuisine and food; diet descriptions and adherence tips, general nutrition information about foods. Use and instruction on cooking appliances and utensils. Food celebrity, lifestyle, and enthusiast blogs. http://allrecipes.com http://seriouseats.com
Computers and Internet comp 1003 Information about computers and software, such as hardware, software, software support, information for software engineers, programming and networking, website design, the web and Internet in general, computer science, and computer graphics. Freeware and Shareware is a separate category. http://www.xml.com http://www.w3.org
Health and Medicine hmed 1104 Health care; diseases and disabilities; medical care; hospitals; doctors; medicinal drugs; mental health; psychiatry; pharmacology; exercise and fitness; physical disabilities; vitamins and supplements; sex in the context of health (disease and health care); tobacco use, alcohol use, drug use, and gambling in the context of health (disease and health care). http://webmd.com http://health.com
Weapons weap 1036 Information relating to the purchase or use of conventional weapons such as gun sellers, gun auctions, gun classified ads, gun accessories, gun shows, and gun training, general information about guns, other weapons may be included. Government military websites are classified as Military. http://www.coldsteel.com http://www.gunbroker.com
Illegal Drugs drug 1047 Information about recreational drugs, drug paraphernalia, drug purchase and manufacture. http://www.shroomery.org http://www.planetsteroids.com
Fashion fash 1076 Clothing and fashion, hair salons, cosmetics, accessories, jewelry, perfume, pictures and text relating to body modification, tattoos and piercing, modeling agencies. Dermatological products are classified as Health and Medicine. http://www.fashion.net http://www.styleseat.com
Alcohol alc 1077 Alcohol as a pleasurable activity, beer and wine making, cocktail recipes, liquor sellers, wineries, vineyards, breweries, alcohol distributors. Alcohol addiction is classified as Health and Medicine. Bars and restaurants are classified as Dining and Drinking. http://www.samueladams.com http://www.whisky.com
Cannabis cann 1109 Websites that focus on the recreational and medicinal consumption of cannabis. Sites may include marketing, discussions about legal and regulatory issues, growth and production, paraphernalia, research, and investment in the cannabis industry. Dispensaries, cannabinoid (CBD oil, THC, etc.) based products are also included. http://localproduct.co http://oregonbc.com
Conventions, Conferences and Trade Shows expo 1110 Seminars, trade shows, conventions and conferences themed around a particular industry, market, or common interest. May include information about acquiring tickets, registration, abstract or presentation proposal guidelines, workshops, sponsorship details, vendor or exhibitor information, and other marketing or promotional material. This category includes academic, professional, as well as pop-culture events, all of which tend to be a short-lived or annual event. http://thesmallbusinessexpo.com http://makerfaire.com
Cryptocurrency cryp 1111 Online brokerages and websites that enable users to trade cryptocurrencies; information regarding cryptocurrencies including analysis, commentary, advice, performance indexes, and price charts. General information about cryptomining and mining businesses are included in this category but domains and IP addresses directly involved in mining activities are categorized as Cryptomining. http://coinbase.com http://coinsutra.com
Cryptomining mine 1112 Hosts that are actively participating in a cryptocurrency mining pool. http://give-me-coins.com http://slushpool.com
DoH and DoT doht 1113 Encrypted DNS requests using either the DNS over HTTPS (DoH) protocol or the DNS over TLS protocol. These protocols are typically used as a layer of security and privacy by end-users, but the encryption hides the destination of the request and passes it through a third-party. http://cloudflare-dns.com http://dns.google.com
Dynamic DNS Provider ddns 1114 Users may use dynamic DNS services to make certain applications or content accessible via the web from endpoints hosted on dynamically assigned IP addresses. Access is granted through a hostname on the domain owned by the dynamic DNS service. http://noip.com http://afraid.org
Online Document Sharing and Collaboration docs 1115 Cloud-based software used to create, convert, or edit documents. Collaboration and sharing features may be available with access permissions typically configured by the author. Documents may be stored online or available to download. http://pastebin.com http://docs.google.com
Internet of Things iot 1116 Domains used to monitor the general health, activity, or aid in the configuration of Internet of Things (IoT) and other network-aware electronics. Additionally these sites may provide software or firmware updates or allow remote access to administer the device. IoT exists in both consumer and professional segments, in products such as printers, televisions, thermostats, system monitoring, automation, and smart appliances. http://samsungotn.net http://transport.nest.com
Museums muse 1117 Museums and exhibits, both online and physical, dedicated to preserving information regarding subjects that could be of general interest or highly specialized. Subjects could range from art, history, science, or be of cultural importance. http://ushmm.org http://museodelasmomiasdeguanajuato.negocio.site
Cloud and Data Centers serv 1118 Platforms used to serve cloud infrastructure or data center hosting to support an organization's applications, services, or data processing. Due to the de-centralized nature of these domains and IP addresses, a more specific category cannot be applied based on content or ownership. http://azurewebsites.net http://s3.amazonaws.com
Terrorism and Violent Extremism terr 1119 Terrorist or extremist websites that promote death or violence as part of their ideology. Sites may contain graphic or disturbing images, videos, and text. Some sites may not advocate terrorism but share first-hand material of a violent nature.
URL Shorteners shrt 1120 Domains used to shorten long URLs, brand URLs, or may obscure the final destination of a hyperlink. http://bit.ly http://tinyurl.com
Private IP Addresses as Host piah 1121 Private IP addresses which are used as the host part of a URL. Private IP addresses are meant for internal use behind border routers only, so they are not publicly routable.
DNS-Tuneling tunn 1122 Sites that provide DNS Tunneling as a service. These services can be for PC or mobile and create a VPN connection specifically over DNS to send traffic that may bypass corporate policies and inspection.
Regional Restricted Sites (Great Britain) xgbr 1123 URLs that are restricted in Great Britain due to content which may be unlawful as determined by the regional government.
Regional Restricted Sites (Italy) xita 1124 URLs that are restricted in Italy due to content which may be unlawful as determined by the regional government.
Regional Restricted Sites (Germany) xdeu 1125 URLs that are restricted in Germany due to content which may be unlawful as determined by the regional government.
Regional Restricted Sites (Poland) xpol 1126 URLs that are restricted in Poland due to content which may be unlawful as determined by the regional government. http://betsafe62.com http://tornadobet69.com
Animals and Pets pets 1107 Information about domestic animals, livestock, service animals, pets and their care. Veterinary services, medicines, and animal health. Pet and animal training, aquariums, zoos, and animal shows. Includes animal shelters, humane societies, animal centric charities, and sanctuaries, bee keeping, training, and animal husbandry; dinosaurs and extinct animals. http://petmd.co http://wheaten.org.uk
Category Description
Malware Sites Websites that are known to contain, serve, or support malware in its delivery, propagation, or in carrying out its malicious intent.
Spyware and Adware Sites that are known to contain, serve, or support Spyware and Adware activities.
Phishing Phishing and other fraudulent sites that copy or mimic legitimate sites for the purposes of surreptitiously acquiring sensitive information, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, etc..., for use in malicious activities.
Botnets Known to participate in a Bot network. These include Command and Control (CNC, C2) Servers and sites that deliver or receive data as part of the malicious transaction (bots, zombies).
Spam Known to serve, deliver or aide in the propagation of Spam.
Exploits Sites that are known to host or aide in exploits, drive-by-downloads and other activities that identifies and compromises vulnerable systems.
High Risk Sites and Locations Domains and hostnames that match against the OpenDNS predictive security algorithms from security graph.
Bogon Bogons are IP Addresses that are known to belong to reserved IP address spaces that is supposedly unallocated or undelagated. Sites in this category are bogons that are known to be sending traffic.
Ebanking Fraud Known to engage in fraudulent activities that relate to electronic banking.
Indicators of Compromise (IOC) Hosts that have been observed to engage in Indicators of Compromise.
Domain Generated Algorithm Domains that are extracted from malware that employ algorithms that generate domains for potential use in future malicious activities such as hosting malware or as an exfiltration destination.
Open HTTP Proxy Hosts that are known to run Open Web Proxies and offer anonymous web browsing services.
Open Mail Relay Commonly used by Spam and Phishing attackers, sites in this category are hosts that are known to offer anonymous email relaying services.
TOR exit Nodes Hosts known to offer exit node services for the Tor Anonymizer network.
DNS Tunneling Sites that provide DNS Tunneling as a service. These services can be for PC or mobile and create a VPN connection specifically over DNS to send traffic that may bypass corporate policies and inspection.
Dynamic DNS Sites that are hosting dynamic DNS services. Attackers can use this technology as an evasion technique against IP blacklisting.
Newly Seen Domains Domains that have recently been registered, or not yet seen via telemetry. The behavior of these URLs has not been observed enough to establish the appropriate reputation. Spammers and malicious actors may rely on newly registered, or previously unused domains to disguise their activities, and avoid interdiction due to low reputation. Some legitimate URLs may briefly appear in this threat category as they become visible.
Cryptojacking Websites with embedded scripts to mine cryptocurrency which use the visitor's web browser. The script may belong to the owner of the web site, or injected by a malicious third-party, and is used as a method of generating revenue.
Linkshare Websites that share copyrighted files without permission. The web site may be compromised, or otherwise involved in illegal file sharing.
Malicious Sites Sites exhibiting malicious behavior that do not necessarily fit into another, more granular, threat category.