Security Alert! Typos Pose New Danger All Their Own

Just when you think you’re up to date with all the security issues confronting digital professionals – along comes another one: typo squatting.

Typo squatting is when a domain is purchased and published solely because it is a typographical error of an existing domain. Think: micrpspft.com, tatget.com, legaltypst.com.

The squatted domain owner puts up content based on their intent – from making it look as close to the original as possible to try and capture credit card and other confidential information to downloading malicious code onto visitor’s computers. Since these are independent domains, the owners can make the pages look and act any way they wish.

As illustrated in the clip below from the Tech Republic blog post,Three ways to prevent data leakage due to typo-squatting, nowadays, one small typo isn’t just embarassing, it can wreak havoc with your digital security.

clipped from blogs.techrepublic.com.com

Typo-squatting is more than a way for scammers to make a quick buck. It can also lead to data leakage. The more secretive attacker doesn’t even put up a page to correspond with the squatted-domain. Only a DNS MX record exists to forward emails to the appropriate, potentially malicious, mail server. Organizations that follow proven practices for protecting their email and good name are reasonably safe. However, those who ignore the growing threat posed by these attacks are facing increasing risks.