Typosquatting can cause harm to internet users, a new report has indicated.
Paul Ducklin, of the security firm Sophos, criticized people who register misspelt domain names in an attempt to benefit from wrongly typed URLs.
He warned that websites hosted at ‘incorrect’ domain names may seek to profit from unaware internet users.
“Typosquatters register mis-spellings of popular domains in the hope that they will be able to make money out of traffic from unintentional typing mistakes, or fat-finger errors, made by internet surfers,” Mr. Ducklin stated.
He explained that, in a test for one website, one incorrectly spelt domain name brought up three different sites, none of which had any relevance to the desired domain.
According to internet commentator Ramon Ray, typosquatting remains a difficult issue for the domain name industry.
Writing for Smallbiztechology.com, he explained that improved dispute resolution and business defences have helped reduce the risk of cybersquatting since 2000.
However, typosquatting remains a trickier sub-area, Mr. Ray suggested.