Blackholing

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Blackholing Mean?

Blackholing is an anti-spam technique in which an internet service provider (ISP) blocks packets coming from a certain domain or address. Blackholing can also refer to an individual who sets up a similar barrier up for his or her personal network. Blackholing of specific domains can prevent certain types of malware and denial of service attacks.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Blackholing

Blackholing is essentially a security measure that can be put into place against known offenders. By blackholing certain IP addresses and domains, an ISP can reduce the amount of spam entering the system, reducing the load and making customers happy in the bargain. Blackholing does, of course, have the potential to be abused by ISPs, which could use it to block competing services or prevent legitimate activities.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.