WHOIS history tools are pretty handy when basic lookups return privacy-protected records. Sure, masked WHOIS records existed pre-GDPR, but these days, almost everyone redacts their records. Having options in accessing historical data is also an advantage. I’m using WHOIS History Search within this vendor’s Domain Research Suite, by the way.

The demo version of the tool provides the actual data related to the most recent historical WHOIS records. I find this generous since other tools often only offer statistics in their demos—how many records and changes were found, etc. With this WHOIS history tool, I can actually visualize what I’m getting.

WHOIS history has proven very helpful in our cyber investigations for the past couple of years, in light of the redaction of WHOIS records. While privacy regulations mean well, their implications in the domain registration process have been felt strongly in the cybersecurity realm, based on my experience.