Abuse Notification Response Times: A Cross-Provider Analysis of Takedown Effectiveness

Abstract

Comprehensive analysis of abuse notification response times across 180+ hosting providers. We measure time-to-acknowledgment, time-to-takedown, and identify which provider characteristics correlate with faster response to phishing abuse reports.

Key Findings

1. 1Top 10 hosting providers by volume averaged 4.2 hours time-to-takedown; bottom 50 averaged 127 hours
2. 2Providers with dedicated abuse API endpoints responded 8.3x faster than email-only providers
3. 3XARF-formatted abuse reports received 23% faster acknowledgment than free-text reports
4. 4Weekend takedown times were 2.1x longer than weekday averages across all provider tiers
5. 5Automated re-notification at 24-hour intervals reduced overall time-to-takedown by 31%

Topics