Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typo-squatters 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 typos-quatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make money from Google’s AdSense for domains program.
How It Works :
The Typo-Patrol scanner built into the tool currently consists of a network of 17 machines, each running a daemon process that monitors its own input-request queue residing in a folder on a central management machine. According to Wang, when a list of typo-domains is dropped into the queue, the daemon fetches the list and launches virtual machines to visit each domain.
The daemon copies all recorded data to the host machine, including information on all secondary URLs visited, the content of all HTTP requests and responses, and optionally a screen shot. Upon completing the scan of the entire list, the daemon copies all data to its output folder on the central management machine, Wang said.
Recorded data in the output folder is inserted into a typo-domain database for data queries and analysis.
To Monitor Pornography :
Yi-Min Wang, who heads up the group’s work in Redmond, Wash., said URL Tracer can be used as a parental control tool to block inappropriate ads from being served from Web sites that are set up to deliberately lure kids who accidentally misspell a popular domain.
He said the group analyzed typo-squatting on 50 popular children’s sites and found more then 7,000 typo-domains. About 2,685 of those domains were active, and a total of 110 were serving questionable content.
“Four domains redirected to adult sites directly, 36 domains contained at least one conspicuous link to an adult site, and the remaining domains displayed at least one conspicuous adult-category link to a page of adult ads listings,” Wang said.
Most of the ads were being served from Oingo.com, a domain parking service that powers Google’s popular Adsense for domains program. The domain parking service is aimed at Web sites that generate more than 750,000 page views per month and, according to Google’s own boast, Adsense for domains is now powering over 3 million domain names.
“This is a huge, lucrative business,” Wang said, noting that the typo-squatters have been monitoring his group’s published work “on a daily basis” and have been moving domains being parking services to dodge detection.
To Monitor Domains :
URL Tracer can also serve as a typo-patrol tool used by trademark owners who want to monitor typo-domains. “It is often too expensive for target-domain owners to investigate and take actions against a large number of individual typo-domains,” he said, adding that a feature built into URL Tracer can take a target domain name and automatically generate and scan its typo-neighborhood.
The tool uses five programmatic typo-generation modelsâ€â€deliberate missing-dot typos, character omission typos, character permutation typos, character replacement typos and character insertion typosâ€â€to pinpoint potential domain-registration structures that are being used to steal traffic from large brands.
Wang said high-traffic properties that are a constant target include MySpace.com, Slashdot, Amazon.com, Expedia, Washington Post, New York Times, Microsoft.com and DisneyChannel.com. Deliberately misspelled domains for several major banking and financial services Web sites are also a constant target, he said.