May 20, 2016

Cybersquatting can be defined as an illegal registration, use or trade of a domain name with the intent of making monetary profits from website visits. In most cases, the cyber squatter may sell the domain to the rightful company at a certain price. However, he may also attempt to divert users from the legitimate website to infect their device with malware.

Types Of Cybersquatting

  • Creative Extortion: This form of cybersquatting capitalizes on the adjournment or ignorance of the business owner to register a domain name. The cybercriminal may get hold of the domain and sell it back to the owner at a higher price.
  • Typosquatting: In this case, the cyber squatter creates a URL based on the common typographical errors made by the users. For instance, www.abcd.com may be registered as www.abxd.com, owing to the proximity of the keys ‘c’ and ‘x’ on the keyboard. Whenever a user misspells the URL, he gets directed to the fake website.
  • Dropcatcher: This involves purchasing a domain name immediately after it has expired, without giving its owner the time to re-register. By acquiring the domain name, cyber squatters may greatly benefit from the huge traffic that would otherwise have been received by the genuine website.
  • Defamatory Cybersquatting: Some cyber squatters may purchase a domain name and publish defamatory comments about a trademark owner. This compels the owner to purchase the domain at a higher price to protect his reputation and credibility.

Tips To Protect Against Cybersquatting

  • Make sure you register your company’s domain name and logo as early as possible. Also, renew it in a timely manner. Many cyber squatters have specialized software to scan registry services and acquire the domain name right when it expires.
  • Get a domain name registered even if you have not set up your business yet. Cyber squatters usually buy domains in bulk, so you should acquire all potential URLs that you may want for your business.
  • Build up as many variations of your domain name as possible to prevent typosquatting. All these additional domains should be redirected to your primary website. Register all the typographical errors that users may make while entering the URL. If your URL has more than one word, register it with hyphen between them. You should also consider registering multiple extensions for your domain name, including ‘.com’, ‘.org’, ‘.net’ etc.

Centex Technologies provides comprehensive cyber security solutions to the business firms in Central Texas. For more information, you can call us at (855) 375 – 9654.