Is Brand Name Typosquatting really Cybersquatting?

March 11 2010 by Teksquisite in Security |No Comments

Cybersquatting as domain squatting

Cybersquatting is profit that is made from the goodwill of a trademark.  The Domain Name Handbook defines cybersquatting as:

“A name given to individuals who attempt to profit from the Internet by reserving and later reselling or licensing domain names back to the companies that invested time and money in developing the goodwill of the trademark.”

The plan behind cybersquatting is almost always to extort payment from the trademark owner.  Once the owner pays the price demanded by the cybersquatter, the domain name is then returned to the owner.

Criminals can also use cybersquatting for malicious purposes, such as sending spoofed email in phishing campaigns for the purpose of stealing your identity, or cybersquatting can be used in the pursuit of corporate revenge.

Typosquatting as URL hijacking – is all about raking in ad revenue!

On the other hand, Typosquatting is far more insidious and dangerous than that of cybersquatting. The intent behind typosquatting technology is in the purchase of huge quantities of popular domain names that are typos of brand domains (that often have significant traffic) in order to hijack site visitors who mistype an original domain name.

As an example: Canadadrugs.com, a popular online pharmacy is currently a victim of typosquatters:

candadrugs.com – Purchased by: Valuable Web Names
14525 SW Millikan Way #13790
Beaverton, OR 97005-2343
canaadrugs.com

canadarugs.com – purchased by Suucess
23852 pacific coast highway unit 720
malibu, ca 90265 US

cnadadrugs.com – Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.

Typosquatting sites often use mousetrapping (a circle jerk) or redirection methods in order to inundate the user with advertisements or redirect them away from the brand site to promote competitive products.  WiseGEEK further defines mousetrapping as “a technique used to trap an unwilling visitor at an offending website in order to gain maximum benefit from the one-time visit.”

There is GREAT PROFITABILITY in the use of
mis-typed domain names – Just ask Google!

Harvard researchers Ben Edelman and Tyler Moore suggests that Google may be profiting from typosquatters – at the expense of online advertisers.

“The scheme is a simple one for the perpetrators: owners of such typosquatting sites place ads on them in the hopes that people who accidentally navigate there will click on them. Moore and Edelman – who has done several indepth and critical studies of Google’s policies – estimate that Google earns about $500 million a year in such misplaced revenues.”

According to Moore and Edelman, 57% of typo domains include Google pay-per-click ads.



Domain Name Techniques

“Suppose a user omits the period that separates “www” from a site’s domain name, for example, “wwwmcafee.com” instead of “www.mcafee.com.” Typosquatters can register that domain.” –McAfee

FYI: Resources to help you make informed decisions!

  1. Domains 101
  2. Going Global with a Brand
  3. Not Your Grandfather’s Trademark Law: Social Media’s Transformation of Trademark Law into Brand Identity and Reputation Management
  4. An Analysis of the $220 Million Spent by Brand Owners on UDRP
  5. How to Watch your Trademarks, Domains and Brands Online in Today’s World
  6. Mastering Your Domain – Best Practices for Managing a Global Domain Name Portfolio

In Conclusion

Brand name typosquatting is not really cybersquatting! The methodology utilized by cyber-criminals in cybersquatting merely fulfills the demand of collecting a one-time extortion fee in return for a brand name domain.

Whereas, Typosquatting methodology contains the element of continuous financial return in advertising clicks via hijacking domains that can be mis-typed.  Make no mistake about it — Typosquatting is BIG bucks in the realm of cyber-crime.

Until next time — Stay safe online!

Google ALERT poisoned URL

March 7 2010 by Teksquisite in Malware, Security |No Comments

While happily perusing Google malware alerts this morning, I managed to click on a poisoned URL.  The Vista computer that I use for alerts/surfing/chatting/social networking is not my main PC, but is obviously one that I have no desire to infect!

So as to not reinvent the wheel, I went to Norton Safeweb and got a fairly good description of what this threat entails:

This particular malware is a drive-by-download and HTTP Fake Scan Webpage.  It is not OK to click OK on the popup! You should immediately use task manager to end the browser session.  Next you should run an antivirus and anti-malware scan (Malwarebytes is a good choice.)

This is a short-n-sweet!  Until next time — stay safe online!

TrademytweetsDOTcom – just another Twitter Scam!

February 21 2010 by Teksquisite in Malware, Security |2 Comments

Trademytweets[SCAM]com is a new variation of the old Tweeterfast, Tweeterfollow theme. Recent domains that have operated under the same gray umbrella are gettwitterfollowersforfree.com and
SpreadMyTweets.com.

Trademytweets claims:

“How does it work? When you sign in with your Twitter details, our system will find you 20, 40, 60 or 100 other Tweeters. Then with these people it will begin to make them follow you as you follow them, instantly. “An eye for an eye.” This service will continue until you choose to stop it.”

Current keyword tweets:with approximately 10 tweets per minute involving numerous affected accounts.

“Want some Free Twitter Followers?”
“Just used TMT for some free followers”
“Get Free Twitter Followers!”

Until Next time – stay safe online!

A quick and dirty on vigilante hackers

February 16 2010 by Teksquisite in hacking |No Comments

Psychological harassment, obstruction of justice,  and misuse of Internet technologies is clearly breaking the law.

For those of us who are involved in the realm of information security, it is a sad time indeed to see the control that some vigilante hackers have over the Internet.

Some of these cyber-criminals are not at all who they portray themselves to be. If you tear down their core belief system, vigilante hacker intentions are rarely focused on the good of society as a whole, and almost always seeking some form of self-gratification in the realm of fame and glory.

Would you really support a child who is having a major temper tantrum with rewards of praise for such actions?  Or would you teach that child how to utilize appropriate coping skills so that she/he could become a better family member, friend and neighbor.

This is a short-n-sweet!  Until next time — stay safe online!

Spam Spam (What It Do)

February 11 2010 by Teksquisite in Security |No Comments

Disclaimer: This blog post is in relation to my collection of spam. I am not a spam expert.

The past few weeks have elicited all manner of spam at Teksquisite, and also at Gmail and Yahoo accounts.  Spammers often collect email addresses from customer lists, chatrooms, email chain letters, forums, newsgroups, websites, and viruses. Current email accounts that are receiving spam have connections to prior chain mails, forums, and newsgroups. Spam or junk email is almost always unsolicited and unwanted.

“Increasingly, e-mail spam today is sent via “zombie networks”, networks of virus- or worm-infected personal computers in homes and offices around the globe; many modern worms install a backdoor which allows the spammer access to the computer and use it for malicious purposes. This complicates attempts to control the spread of spam, as in many cases the spam doesn’t even originate from the spammer.” –Wikipedia

Most common email spam:

  1. Chain mail – Gordon Brown Hoax 
  2. Trojans – botnets, bredolab, Pushdo
  3. Phishing – Please log into your financial account and confirm
  4. You are a winner – congratulations, lotteries
  5. Offers – Viagra, educational, OEM software
  6. Personals – find true love here
  7. Scam news – generally will contain a link to malware

With an increase in botnet-related spam (mainly Bredolab,) a sharp rise in educational and pharmaceutical/medical spam, and definitely far more activity in the arena of phishing spam regarding financial accounts – you really should pay close attention to what lands in your inbox, because Trojans in the form of zipped files do not always end up in your spam folder.

I find it inconceivable, and somewhat disturbing that I collected almost 900 spam emails last week.  This is quite a jump in spam, considering, that during the first week of January spam for all accounts leveled slightly below 300.

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