Typosquatting Domain

[Fingolfin]

hxxp://malwarebyte.org is currently typosquatting this site. Virustotal report here: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/469b6a67a68ee391df2a891fb1ba568d44246cd3f8be7cfb21f3fb1f0907cfdc/analysis/

 

What can be done about this?

[David H. Lipman]

Not much really.

[Fingolfin]

That's unfortunate, the best that can be done then is to wait until the site is blacklisted or taken down?

[David H. Lipman]

The name "malwarebytes" can have a copyright but names of web sites are not applicable as the copyright names.  That's why the unscrupulous will buy a Domain name that  they believe another company wants.  Then they will sell the Domain for a lot of money.

 

This happens intentionally and unintentionally.  My friend had a site called WindowsDefender and I allowed hi to host content about my Multi-AV Scanning Tool and the tool itself (or a link to it, I forget).  Anyway Microsoft re-branded Live Anti-Virus to Windows Defender  and they bought the rights to web site for an undisclosed sum of money.

 

So you have a situation where one deliberately creates a web site of a name associated with a company and parks it until the company is willing to pay to take over the Domain.

 

I think another example is associated with the National Geographic Channel's "Wicked Tuna" series.  One of the Glouchester Mass. fisherman had the Domain Tuna.Com in 2011.  Then Bumble Bee Seafoods saw the TV series for the first season.  Bumble Bee Seafoods bought the Domain in 2012.  So the previous owner (Dave something or other) had to create a new Domain and so he created FV-Tuna.Com.

 

So this is the way it goes.  The name of a Domain doesn't fall under the copyright laws they way that use of the name is for a product.  Therefore people buy Domain names and park them in hopes that the name most associated with a large company or those with money will subsequently buy the rights to it.

 

EDIT:

 

It is National Geographic, not Discovery Channel.

[Fingolfin]

Thanks for the explanation David, I hope the malicious content on the site gets removed by the owners soon. Or perhaps sell the site to Malwarebytes for a low price.