Typo traps: analyzing traffic to exmaple.com (or is it example.com?)

This case study analyzed the email traffic coming into a dummy email address "exmaple.com" over a period of five months, starting from January 2023. The results shed light on various aspects of email usage and misuse. It found that emails sent to this dummy account can be categorized into several groups: legitimate, spam, malicious, and typo-related. The majority of emails were related to typos or accidental sending errors by users. No major security incidents occurred during the observation period. The analysis also revealed insights about the domain "example.com," which is commonly used in examples for teaching purposes. It showed that this domain has been consistently popular since 2022, receiving billions of DNS queries daily. On the other hand, emails sent to the incorrect address "exmaple.com" received significantly fewer DNS queries (around 40k per day). The case study underscored the importance of human error prevention in maintaining secure and reliable communication systems. While some mistakes may be harmless, others could lead to serious security breaches if not addressed properly.