Industrial control systems vendors get careless on domain squatting

Many companies protect their brands by registering domain names that are slight variations on their own, but manufacturers of industrial control systems don't seem to have followed suit, potentially leaving customers open to attack.

Researchers from security consultancy Digital Bond have found 433 so-called "squat" domains whose names are similar to those of 11 industrial manufacturers, and which have been registered by unknown third parties. Some of the domains have been hosting scams, malicious redirects and malware.

Attackers engage in domain squatting for various reasons: to host phishing pages in order to steal credentials, direct accidental visitors to malware, profit from the brand's popularity by displaying ads, or sell the domain to the brand owner for a large fee.

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