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Cultural Icons Flock to VIP DomainBlock -- GoDaddy's New Digital Identity Protection Tool for the Worldwide Entertainment Industry

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  Published in Media and Entertainment on Thursday, September 18th 2025 at 12:53 GMT by The Hollywood Reporter
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GoDaddy Unveils VIP DomainBlock: A New Shield for Digital Identities

In an increasingly hostile online landscape, where brand hijacking, phishing, and other domain‑based attacks have risen in both sophistication and frequency, GoDaddy has announced a new security offering aimed at providing a more robust line of defense for its customers. Titled VIP DomainBlock, the tool is part of the company’s expanding suite of “digital‑identity protection” products and promises to give business owners—especially those with high‑profile or high‑traffic websites—a way to preemptively block malicious traffic before it ever reaches their servers.

What is VIP DomainBlock?

VIP DomainBlock is a real‑time domain filtering and IP blocking service that sits in front of a customer’s website. By leveraging a constantly updated database of known malicious domains and IP addresses, the system automatically stops traffic from potentially harmful sources. The service works at the DNS level: when a request arrives, GoDaddy’s infrastructure checks the domain or IP against its threat intelligence feed; if the source is flagged, the request is dropped or redirected before it can even hit the website’s application layer.

In practice, this means a visitor who has been redirected to a phishing site or who is attempting to exploit a vulnerability in the web application won’t get that far. The protection extends beyond simple malware hosts, covering a range of threat categories that include:

• Phishing sites that try to mimic legitimate brands to steal credentials.
• Malware distribution domains that host or serve malicious code.
• Spam and botnet command‑and‑control servers that could be used to launch DDoS attacks.
• C2 (command‑and‑control) sites that can compromise devices and exfiltrate data.

The product also offers granular control. Site owners can create custom rules, whitelist trusted domains, and configure how the system reacts to certain threat categories. For example, a brand may choose to block all phishing domains from a particular region while allowing benign traffic from the same area.

How VIP DomainBlock Fits into GoDaddy’s Existing Product Line

VIP DomainBlock is not a stand‑alone solution. It builds upon GoDaddy’s established SiteLock and DNS Security offerings, integrating tightly with the company’s broader Protection Suite. SiteLock has long been marketed as a web‑application security tool, offering features like malware scanning, patch management, and vulnerability detection. VIP DomainBlock complements these by focusing on the front‑end—preventing malicious traffic from even reaching the application layer.

GoDaddy’s own press release notes that VIP DomainBlock is available through the same billing mechanisms as SiteLock, meaning customers can add the service to their existing subscription or purchase it separately. The service is currently available to customers who host their domains on GoDaddy, but the company plans to roll it out to external customers in the coming months.

The Value Proposition for High‑Profile Brands

For e‑commerce merchants, media outlets, and celebrity or corporate brands, domain hijacking isn’t just a technical problem—it’s a brand‑reputation crisis. A single phishing page that uses a brand’s name can erode customer trust and potentially expose sensitive data. VIP DomainBlock offers a tangible way to mitigate that risk.

A spokesperson from GoDaddy emphasized this point, stating: “VIP DomainBlock gives brands a proactive shield, reducing the attack surface before a malicious domain can even reach their users. That means less risk of phishing, brand spoofing, or accidental data exposure.” The spokesperson also highlighted that the solution scales easily—from small business sites with a few thousand visitors to large enterprises with millions of daily hits.

The product is priced on a subscription basis, though GoDaddy has not publicly disclosed specific tiers. The company has indicated that the pricing is competitive with other domain‑blocking services on the market, such as those offered by Cloudflare and Akamai. The tool is marketed as an “enterprise‑grade” solution, making it a natural fit for larger organizations with higher security requirements.

Technical Underpinnings and Threat Intelligence

VIP DomainBlock relies on GoDaddy’s proprietary threat intelligence feed, which aggregates data from multiple sources—including open‑source intelligence, commercial data partners, and its own real‑time monitoring of malicious activity across the web. The feed is refreshed every 30 minutes, ensuring that new threats are addressed quickly.

One of the product’s key differentiators is its integration with GoDaddy’s existing DNS infrastructure. Because the service operates at the DNS level, it requires minimal changes to a website’s configuration. Site owners simply enable the VIP DomainBlock setting in their DNS dashboard, and the system takes over.

The tool also includes an API that allows customers to pull logs and reports, facilitating compliance and incident response. For example, a brand can generate a monthly audit of blocked domains and analyze trends to adjust security posture.

Wider Context: The Rising Need for Digital Identity Protection

The launch of VIP DomainBlock comes amid a broader trend in the cybersecurity industry toward digital identity protection. As data breaches become more frequent and regulatory demands for data privacy grow, businesses are increasingly looking for layered security strategies that go beyond traditional firewalls and antivirus. Domain blocking is recognized as a first line of defense against many common attack vectors.

According to a 2023 report by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), over 60% of phishing attacks begin with a domain that has already been compromised. This statistic underscores the importance of blocking malicious domains early.

In this context, GoDaddy’s VIP DomainBlock appears to be a timely addition to the market. While large cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud offer DNS filtering services, GoDaddy’s focus on brand protection and its long history of managing millions of domains gives it a unique edge in serving small and medium‑sized businesses that may lack the resources for in‑house security teams.

Where to Find More Information

For readers who want a deeper dive into the technical specifics or the pricing details, GoDaddy’s official product page provides a comprehensive FAQ and a downloadable whitepaper on domain‑based threat mitigation. Additionally, GoDaddy’s support portal offers step‑by‑step instructions on how to enable VIP DomainBlock for your domain, along with troubleshooting tips.

The original Hollywood Reporter article also links to GoDaddy’s own blog post announcing the product, which includes a video demonstration of how VIP DomainBlock works in real time. That post provides an illustrated walkthrough of the dashboard and showcases how the system logs blocked requests and triggers alerts.

Bottom Line

VIP DomainBlock is GoDaddy’s answer to the mounting threat of domain‑based attacks, offering a simple yet powerful mechanism to keep malicious traffic out of brand‑owned websites. By integrating real‑time threat intelligence at the DNS level, the tool adds a proactive layer of defense that complements existing web‑application security measures. For businesses that rely on their online presence for revenue, brand integrity, or customer engagement, VIP DomainBlock provides a compelling reason to consider upgrading their security stack. As cyber threats continue to evolve, the importance of pre‑emptive domain blocking will only grow—making GoDaddy’s latest offering a timely and potentially game‑changing addition to the industry’s toolbox.