Internet

Website Impersonation: Are you able to detect this serious problem?

Fake domains to attack users

Through a fake domain an attacker could put users’ security at risk. It can be used to deliver malware, carry out a Phishing attack and steal passwords, as well as impersonating a company’s image and damaging its image to customers.

A report made by Digital shadows has shown that its clients face more than 1,000 domain spoofs every year. Without a doubt, a more than significant figure that shows us how this is something widely used by hackers to achieve their objectives and compromise privacy and security.

But it does not affect everyone equally. According to this same report, financial services they are the most affected sector. They represent 20% of all website spoofing attempts. Ultimately, cybercriminals seek to steal bank accounts and divert payments. It is a problem to consider.

Other widely used sectors are food, technology, insurance and healthcare. The goal is always going to be similar: steal information, deliver malware, cause users to log in and submit passwords inadvertently, etc.

Typically what hackers do is create a domain with a name similar to legitimate. In this way they make the victim believe that they are facing something official, but in reality it is a threat. They usually include the real logo of that organization and look very similar to the official website.

Tips against phishing

Detecting fake pages is very important

All this that we mentioned makes it vital to detect the possible fraudulent web pages that we face. It is essential to know when we are faced with a URL that has been created simply to steal our passwords and never expose the data.

What can we do to identify fake sites? It is similar to what we could do to recognize fake emails. The first thing will be to observe the domain address. They usually change a letter or number to make it look like it is the official one. You also have to look at the extension, as that could give us clues.

But without a doubt something very important is going to be the General aspect from that site. We can usually detect threats just by looking at a page. Although they try to trace the content, they usually leave clues that indicate that it really is a threat.

This will help prevent the entry of malware. The best thing to identify if a website is legitimate or not is common sense, the visual aspect. However, there are also tools that can analyze an address and launch an alert that it is a site that may contain malware or be used for Phishing.

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