What is Typosquatting attack? And what are the mechanisms to prevent against Typosquatting attacks?
Typosquatting attack occurs when a cybercriminal buys and registers a domain name of a popular brand or organization through misspelling or slightly changing the website domain name of the legitimate organization. As opposed to cybersquatting, in which attackers use already registered domain names or similar ones in bad faith, typosquatting attack deliberately misspells the organizations domain name to redirect traffic or launch phishing and similar attacks. Furthermore, typosquatting is a cyberattack that lures users into divulging sensitive data such as credentials to cybercriminals. It is a cyberattack employed to take advantage of when users mistype the domain name or IP address of an organization or other entity. The squatter predicts and crafts potential URL typos and then registers those domain names to direct traffic to their own website.
The following are some of the common measures that website owners can do to minimize typosquatting attacks:
- Trademark and register domain names and purchase domain variations that could be easily misspelled
- Use tools to automatically scan domain names and determine whether there already exists a typosquatting attack in progress
- Look for Internet Service Providers (ISP) that offer typosquatting protection services before hosting
- Vigilantly monitor website traffic to track typosquatting attacks that are in progress
- More
The most common types of typosquatting attack include the following:
- Bailt and switch
- Imitators
- Related search results listing
- Monetize traffic
- Install malware
- Surveys and giveaways
- Joke sites
- Affiliate links