Microsoft 'URL Tracer' Hunts Typosquatters

TonioSop writes "Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typosquatters that are known to be gaming pay-per-click domain parking services. The lightweight prototype, called Strider URL Tracer, builds on the work within Microsoft's Cybersecurity and Systems Management group to keep tabs on a sophisticated typosquatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make money from Google's AdSense for domains program. "

Comments

Dupe

[liliafan]

Geez editors this is a dupe I was reading this same article at slashdt.org earlier *sigh* :)

Great news.

[gregarican]

Now I have a new buzzword to gratuitously throw out there...typosquatting. Sweet.

Re:Great news.

[gregarican]

I have been caught red handed, cybersquatting on the information superhighway. I should be e-rrested immediately.

Re:Great news.

[dr_dank]

Typosquatting sounds like it was coined by the grammar nazis. Observe its use in such a sentence:

After Tad posted that illiterate post on Slashdot, the grammar nazis typosquatted down and took a big dump all over it.

Re:Great news.

[CanSpice]

Actually, goatadsl.co.uk is a legitimate ISP. I would have gone with them but their download rates are only 1.5 megableats per second.

Typosquatter gone Extinct

[digitaldc]

And here we have the Typosquatter, a theropod dinosaur, roughly between the early punchcards and their ultimate culmination in the Domain-Squatting dinosaurs. It lived between 1 to 13 years ago, in the Windows Ages.
Of the early Internet period, though one unknown species is from the very late Typewriter period. The various Typosquatter species are bulky omnivores, ranging from approximately 2 to 3 metres (5-8 feet) in height, and averaging about 235 pounds in weight.
Its most distinctive feature was the uncanny ability to take on the likeness of other domains, likely used for trapping its fumbling prey and for phishing scams. It was recently hunted to extinction by Tyrannus Microsoftus using its most effective method of capture, the 'URL Tracer.'

As an added bonus...

[blincoln]

...if there are more than 1000 participants, Microsoft will pay them each $1000.

I wonder - is this a good day for neoppets?

[kimvette]

re: One such misspelling, neoppets.com, is currently serving ads promising naked photos of Britney Spears or other adult images.

Let me guess: /. pointed to that article resulted in neoppets' daily revenue increasing by several orders of magnitude today?

I can see it now: a million slashdotters thinking "Oooh, naked pics of Britney. I gotta see it!"

You went there. Admit it. You know you did.

Talk about yer typos

[chrisbtoo]

FTFA:

He said the group [...] found more then 7,000 typo-domains.


Priceless.

typo squatting for word

[ChrisGood]

I thought this would be an article about the new microsoft word spell check wizard. It could have even been a discussion of all those who sit there reading posts just to reply about spelling. "yeah well at least i can spell, turn spell check on loser"

They did something like this once before

[Phat_Tony]

It's no surprise Microsoft is doing this, because they have some history with making tracing programs.

I remember that years ago Bill Gates got together with Disney to make an email-tracing program. It's great to hear they're working on something similar again, because the people who took part in the beta testing for the email tracing program were supposed to be really handsomely rewarded. I think they got, like, $10,000 for every person they forwarded it to, or something.

I wonder where I can sign up to test this program?