Er worden op internet op grote schaal domeinnamen geregistreerd die één letter verschillen van bekende merken, om op die manier zo veel mogelijk e-mailadressen te verzamelen of geld te verdienen. Vooral kinderen blijken het doelwit van dit fenomeen, dat bekend staat als typo-squatting. Dat zijn de belangrijkste conclusies die McAfee trok na een uitgebreid onderzoek waarin 1,9 miljoen variaties op de 2.117 meest populaire domeinnamen wereldwijd zijn onderzocht. In Nederland blijkt dit fenomeen overigens minder vaak voor te komen dan bijvoorbeeld in het Verenigd Koninkrijk of Portugal.
Meer informatie vindt u in onderstaand Engelstalig persbericht. Indien u interesse heeft om het gehele Nederlandse rapport te ontvangen, als u met iemand van McAfee zou willen spreken, of als u vragen heeft over onderstaand persbericht, kunt u contact opnemen met:
Text 100 Public Relations, Daniëlle van Leeuwen
D: +31.20.530.43.48
E-mail:
danielle.vanleeuwen@text100.nl PERSBERICHT
NEW MCAFEE STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DANGEROUS INTERNET SITES THAT PREY ON MISTYPED WEB ADDRESSES
Questionable third-party domain registrations target misspelled business and consumer Web domain names for profit Amsterdam, Dec. 4, 2007 – McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) released a research report that spotlights a dangerous cyber practice known as typo-squatting. “What’s In A Name: The State of Typo-Squatting 2007,” exposes how typo-squatters register domains using common misspellings of popular brands, products and people in order to redirect consumers to alternative Web sites. These squatter-run sites generate click-through advertising revenues, lure unsuspecting consumers into scams and harvest email addresses to flood users with unwanted email. To quantify the scope of the study, McAfee reviewed 1.9 million variations of 2,771 of the most popular domain names.
“Typo-squatting illustrates the Wild West mentality that remains dominant in major portions of the Internet,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee® Avert® Labs and Product Development. “Even at its most benign, this practice takes consumers to places they never intended and penalizes legitimate businesses by siphoning customers away or making them pay a charge to re-acquire customers. At its worst, typo-squatting leads to online scams, ‘get-rich-quick’ offers and other risks.”
The study cites the iPhone mania as a recent example of typo-squatting, noting that even though Apple’s new phone appeared on the market just a few months ago, there will likely be at least 8,000 URLs using the word “iPhone” by the end of this year. Some will be fan sites or rumor sites, while others will be run by hackers and scammers. What most have in common is that they have no affiliation with Apple.
“What’s In A Name: The State of Typo-Squatting 2007” quantifies both the significant scope of the overall problem and also the differences among major Web categories. Among the key findings:
· A typical consumer who misspells a popular URL has a 1 in-14 chance of landing at a typo-squatter site
· Children’s sites are heavily targeted: More than 60 of the most squatted sites are designed to appeal to the 18-and-under demographic, with squatters targeting domains like webkinz.com, clubpenquin.com and neopets.com
· Some typo-squatters take advantage of typing errors to expose children to pornography. In fact, 2.4 percent, or more than 46,000 of the typo-squatter sites tested, include some adult content, and some of those sites are squatters of children’s properties.
· The five most highly squatted categories are:
o Game sites (14% likelihood of being squatted) such as miniclip.com, runescape.com and minijuegos.com
o Airline sites (11.4% likelihood) such as ryanair.com, united.com, and lufthansa.com
o Mainstream media sites (10.8%) such as vh1.com, globo.com and qvc.com
o Dating sites (10.2%) such as plentyoffish.com, true.com and singlesnet.com
o Technology and Web 2.0-related sites (9.6%)
· Automated ad syndication services enable many typo-squatter sites to make money; in fact one search engine’s ads show up on 19.3% of all suspected typo-squatter sites in this study
· The five non-U.S. countries most likely to have popular sites squatted are: the United Kingdom (7.7%), Portugal (6.5%), Spain (5.9%), France (5.4%), and Italy (4.1%)
· The five non-U.S. countries least likely are: the Netherlands (1.5%), Israel (1.1%), Denmark (1.0%), Brazil (0.9%) and Finland (0.1%)
The study notes that typo-squatting is not a new phenomenon—cyber-squatting cases filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s arbitration system increased 20% in 2005 and another 25% in 2006—but it is increasing. The emergence of new, top-level domains, automatic registration tools, and the proliferation of parking portal sites that make it easy to generate pay-per-click revenue from squatted sites are all contributing to its growth.
Taking Action Against Typo-Squatting
To help consumers avoid typo-squatted sites, McAfee SiteAdvisor™, the advance warning protection safe search and surf tool, assigns a yellow “caution” rating to any site that triggers its typo-squatting criteria. In the event that a Web site presents a higher risk to consumers, McAfee issues a red (warning) label. For explicitly dangerous Web sites that are documented to cause exploits or phishing attacks, McAfee SiteAdvisor redirects the consumer to a safe online location. Consumers can download McAfee SiteAdvisor free of charge at
us.mcafee.com.
The report also cites that many search engines such as Yahoo and Google now routinely offer alternatives for common misspellings, reducing the likelihood of landing at a typo site by accident. In addition, the report provides information about companies and organizations joining in the battle against malicious typo-squatting including Microsoft which offers a free tool that allows interested individuals to find and analyze squatters.
To view the complete findings of the study please visit:
www.siteadvisor.com/studies/typo_squatters_nov2007.html www.siteadvisor.com/studies/typosquatter_files/tables.html About McAfee, Inc.
McAfee, Inc., the leading dedicated security technology company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that secure systems and networks around the world. With its unmatched security expertise and commitment to innovation, McAfee empowers home users, businesses, the public sector, and service providers with the ability to block attacks, prevent disruptions, and continuously track and improve their security.
www.mcafee.com.
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McAfee, SiteAdvisor, and/or other noted McAfee related products contained herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. McAfee Red in connection with security is distinctive of McAfee brand products. Any other non-McAfee related products, registered and/or unregistered trademarks contained herein is only by reference and are the sole property of their respective owners. © 2007 McAfee, Inc. All rights reserved.