1. A system for detecting potential phishing, the system comprising: a memory that stores instructions; a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising: selecting a first character of a hostname of a universal resource locator; determining an encoded distance between the first character of the hostname of the universal resource locator and a next character of the hostname of the universal resource locator, wherein the encoded distance is an integral distance between the first character and the next character in a machine encoding; comparing the encoded distance to a threshold value; transmitting a first notification that indicates that the universal resource locator is associated with phishing if the encoded distance is determined to exceed the threshold value based on comparing the encoded distance to the threshold value; adding the encoded distance to a hostname distance if the encoded distance is determined not to exceed the threshold value; determining whether the hostname distance exceeds a threshold hostname distance value; and transmitting a second notification that indicates that the universal resource locator is associated with phishing if the hostname distance is determined to exceed the threshold hostname distance value.