Web Design & Development Guide

Website spoofing

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Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, as a hoax, with the intention of misleading readers that the website has been created by a different person or organisation. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.^[1]

Another technique is to use a 'cloaked' URL. By using domain forwarding, or inserting control characters, the URL can appear to be genuine while concealing the address of the actual website.^[2]

The objective may be fraudulent, often associated with phishing or e-mail spoofing, or to criticize or make fun of the person or body whose website the spoofed site purports to represent.^[3]

As an example of the use of this technique to parody an organization, in November 2006 two spoof websites were produced claiming that Microsoft had bought Firefox and released Microsoft Firefox 2007.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Spoof website will stay online", BBC News, 29 July 2004
2. ^ Anti-Phishing Technology", Aaron Emigh, Radix Labs, 19 January 2005
3. ^ "How to recognize spoofed Web sites", Microsoft, 26 October 2006
4. ^ " Fake Sites Insist Microsoft Bought Firefox ", Gregg Keizer, Information Week, 9 November 2006

External links

• Hacking Guide - Dictionary, Windows, Telnet, Cracks, IRC
• Online Security: hacking, cracking, phreaking, intelligence services

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This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.