Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting is typically about domainnames (URLjacking), brandnames (brandjacking) etc. The basic form is registering a domainname, mostly to put it for sale for a much higher prize.There are many variations, some potentially very harmful. In all of these cases there is manipulation of the URL; the internet web-adress. This can be f.e.: registering a brands' name, a persons' name or a common-used name.
- A form of cybersquatting is brandjacking, where somebody registers a domain name that contains the full name of a celebrity or organization, for the purpose of selling the name with profit or do harm to the target for financial gains, personal motives or ideological motives.
- Another type of cybersquatting is a fake blog (flog), which appears to come from a well-known organization or person, but really is for advertising or ideological purposes.
- Then we know a form called typosquatting, which typically is aimed to mistyping a websites' URL and landing on a fake website, often very similar to the original, but f.e. belonging to a hacker. Sometimes the URL is not changed but something is being added to it (combosquatting), in the beginning or at the end, f.e. say that the name of your bank is "mybank", then the typosquatter could try to lead you to mybank.iamnotme.com, in this combination the trusted name is being used as a subdomain within iamnotme.com and thus leads to a totally different website.
- In a (doppelganger domain) only a small item is being added or changed like adding a dot or a comma, which often easily stays unnoticed.