Typosquatters targeting children's websites

 

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Posted on 20 Nov 2007 at 09:56

Typosquatters - companies who set up websites that use common misspellings of popular brands - are increasingly targeting children, according to new research from McAfee.

More than 60 of the most typosquatted sites are targeted at children, McAfee claims. Disturbingly, a small percentage of those sites are used to direct children towards pornography. In total, 2.4% of the 46,000 typosquatter sites tested by McAfee were redirected to adult content.

McAfee says its very difficult for genuine websites to cover all the bases with misspelt domains. "Bigger companies will try and buy up domains of potential typos," says Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee. "But the scope is pretty wide - there's potentially a lot of sites."

Day says the typosquatters prey on the naivety of children. "The revenue for many typosquatter sites comes from clickthroughs. Children and teens are, to some degree, an easy target," he says.

Other sites most likely to be targeted by the typosquatters include gaming, airlines, mainstream media, dating and technology-related sites. For example, by the end of the year, McAfee estimates there will be 8,000 iPhone related URLs by the end of the year.

The UK is the most popular European country for the typosquatters, with 7.7% of of all such sites originating from .co.uk domains. "In the US, there is growing support for stopping typosquatting," says Day. "In the UK, there's a lot less evidence of that happening."

Overall, a person who misspells a common websites address has a 1-in-14 chance of landing on a typosquatter site.

Author: Barry Collins