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Home | News | New IDN warnings issued
New IDN warnings issued
, 20 March 2005Another group, The UK Internet Forum (UKIF), has now warned that the system that enables the creation of web addresses using a mixture of European and non-European languages (Internationalised Domain Names) could benefit web scammers.
UKIF explained that a decision to combine the European ASCII codes, used to create real name web addresses, and the Unicode system, which covers other languages such as Russian, Greek or Chinese, could lead to criminals using a mixture of the codes to register websites mimicking those of legitimate companies.
Some of the letters in the alphabets that use Unicode resemble those used in European alphabets and consumers could easily be tricked into visiting scam websites. The Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) system is now in force and the UKIF wants companies and the Internet industry to be more aware of the ways in which it could potentially be exploited. Steve Dyer, director of UKIF told Computeractive: "The Russian 'A' looks just the same as the English 'A' although it means something different. A criminal could register a domain name using a mixture of ASCII and Unicode that is indistinguishable to the ordinary surfer from the genuine site.
Mr Dyer pointed out that the IDN system cannot be ditched altogether, particularly as some legitimate sites, such as More Than (More>) and Toys R Us use non-European letters to denote their brand. He said safeguards, such as encouraging browsers to flag up sites that use a mixture of ASCII and Unicode, could help tackle the problem.
UKIF explained that a decision to combine the European ASCII codes, used to create real name web addresses, and the Unicode system, which covers other languages such as Russian, Greek or Chinese, could lead to criminals using a mixture of the codes to register websites mimicking those of legitimate companies.
Some of the letters in the alphabets that use Unicode resemble those used in European alphabets and consumers could easily be tricked into visiting scam websites. The Internationalised Domain Names (IDN) system is now in force and the UKIF wants companies and the Internet industry to be more aware of the ways in which it could potentially be exploited. Steve Dyer, director of UKIF told Computeractive: "The Russian 'A' looks just the same as the English 'A' although it means something different. A criminal could register a domain name using a mixture of ASCII and Unicode that is indistinguishable to the ordinary surfer from the genuine site.
Mr Dyer pointed out that the IDN system cannot be ditched altogether, particularly as some legitimate sites, such as More Than (More>) and Toys R Us use non-European letters to denote their brand. He said safeguards, such as encouraging browsers to flag up sites that use a mixture of ASCII and Unicode, could help tackle the problem.