Security News > 2020 > July > How expired domain names can redirect you to malicious websites
2020-07-09 18:26
Pages for inactive domain names can be exploited by cybercriminals to take you to malicious sites, says Kaspersky.
Most of us at some point have likely tried to open a website only to discover that the site no longer exists, replaced by a landing page indicating that the domain has expired or is up for rewewal.
In other cases, the page is hosted by an auction site looking to sell the expired domain name.
Looking at the activity from March 2019 through February 2020, Kaspersky determined that 89% of these second-stage redirects went to ad-related pages, while 11% went to malicious pages.
People receive money for driving users to certain pages, either ones that are legitimate ad pages or those that are malicious.