![]() ![]() This typo resulted in a link to, a domain registered at the end of January. This time, a space was inserted between "Rudy" and "". In Sunday's example, a typo led to a malvertising scheme. Because Giuliani has over 650,000 followers on Twitter and is a well-known political figure regularly in the headlines, scammers know he's a good source of potential web traffic purely from typosquatting. This time, visiting this link redirects visitors to a Wikipedia page for the Trump-Ukraine scandal: Malvertising and other traffic schemesĪs mentioned earlier, typosquatters will typically watch popular domain names and register new ones that are likely going to be a result of a typo. The domain was also registered recently (but before the tweet came out, so it either was preemptive registration for a forthcoming typo or perhaps the typo had been made already). In another example, we see a much more subtle typo for Giuliani's website, where a single 'i' is missing in (the correct site is ). Visiting the site immediately redirects users to, a site for help with substance abuse. Whoever composed that tweet forgot to add a space between the word "Watch" and "".Īs a result, the website becomes which was registered a day after the tweet: Domain Name: Here's a tweet sent from Giuliani's account using an iPad. In fact, Giuliani's Twitter account contains numerous tweets with misspellings around his personal website that sometimes lead to trolling attempts or redirect to malvertising schemes. In Giuliani's case, a public political figure has been identified by cybercriminals for his tendency toward typo-laden tweets. The end goal isn't always to monetize via malvertising redirections-it could be phishing, data theft, or even hacktivism. Typosquatting can be a profitable business, as threat actors will register domains lexically close to big brand names or popular websites for heavy traffic gains. Rather than seeing the normal YouTube portal, you will instead be redirected via a few ad networks and most likely end up to a scam page, thanks to the handy work of enterprising typosquatters. For example, let's say you enter into your browser's address bar instead of. A mistyped URL, which would normally lead users to a 404 error page, is instead redirected to a completely unrelated site-often one designed for ill intent. Typosquatting has long been used as a way to capitalize on mistakes made by those with clumsy fingers. Instead, a space added after "Rudy" sent users on a redirection quest that ultimately landed on a web page laced with adware. In a tweet sent out on Sunday, Giuliani meant to send his 650,000-plus followers to his new website,. ![]() Former cybersecurity czar Rudy Giuliani has been targeted by typosquatters on Twitter, thanks to copious misspellings and other keyboarding errors made in a number of his public tweets. ![]()
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