F-Fake Websites: Interactivity. Click each of the web browsing attack vectors below to learn more.

Typosquatting

Close-up of a person's hands using a keyboard and mouse as social media icons appear onscreen.

Have you ever accidentally typed a misspelled web address into your web browser only to find that the site actually exists?

Well, believe it or not, cybersquatters are counting on you to make these typing errors and visit their bogus site.

This attack vector is called typosquatting and in most cases, the cybersquatter’s URL is remarkably similar in name to the legitimate site.

Imposter URLs

A person looks closely at their smartphone as an image of an address bar appears.

An imposter URL may contain common misspellings, the addition of plurals such as s or es, the addition or subtraction of periods, replacement, omission, or addition of letters or words, and the use of a different top-level domain (.com instead of .org) or country code top-level domain (.cm instead of .co or .om instead of .com).

URL Shorteners

Close-up of a person's finger tapping a link on a tablet as a tiny URL appears.

The concerns with unsightly URLs containing too many characters were addressed by the invention of URL shorteners.

Not far behind followed their exploitation by hackers, who began using them as another opportunity to get unsuspecting victims to click on a malicious link.

As shortened URLs rise in popularity, avoiding them altogether is not a practical solution, but there are some things you can do to avoid being victimized.