Patent ID: 8707426

Claim:
A method for resolving cousin domain names of a legitimate domain name comprising: applying, via at least one computer processor, at least one rule to a first domain name to generate at least one candidate cousin domain name, wherein applying the at least one rule further comprises modifying at least one character of the first domain name in accordance with the at least one rule to produce the at least one candidate cousin domain name; comparing the at least one candidate cousin domain name with legitimate domain name information to identify a second domain name that is imitated by at least a portion of the first domain name, wherein comparing the at least one candidate cousin domain name with legitimate domain name information comprises computing an edit distance between at least one legitimate domain name out of a plurality of legitimate domain names indicated by the legitimate domain name information and the at least one candidate cousin domain name, wherein comparing the at least one candidate cousin domain name with legitimate domain name information further comprises determining a match between a substring of the at least one candidate cousin domain name and a substring of a legitimate domain name indicated by the legitimate domain name information; and selecting a legitimate domain name out of the plurality of legitimate domain names as the second domain name based upon the computed edit distance.