Downloading an authoritative zone file and performing searches within the
zone file can identify all of the domain names registered to an entity. A
method of identifying all of the domain names registered to an entity may
including downloading a root zone file from a registry or from a root
server and storing the root zone file as a text file with alphanumeric
character strings associating each domain name with a registrar and at
least one domain name server. A search characteristic is established
corresponding to a character string comprising a significant part of one
of the entity's domain names. A string search is performed in the download
root zone file for the search characteristic to identify one or more
domain names matching the search characteristic, as well as a registrar
corresponding to the matching domain name and at least one domain name
server associated with the matching domain name in the downloaded root
zone file. Each matching domain name is stored in a data file, so that the
data file associates each extracted domain name with the corresponding
registrar and the at least one domain name server. The method continues by
repeating, at least once, the successive processes of establishing a
second search characteristic, extracting from the registry at least one
additional domain name on the basis of the second search characteristic
and storing each additional matching domain name in the data file.
