CybersecurityDoppelganger Domains threaten 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies

Published 12 September 2011

30 percent of Fortune 500 companies are vulnerable to Doppelganger Domains attacks; a Doppelganger Domain is a domain spelled identically to a legitimate fully qualified domain name (FQDN) but missing the dot between host/subdomain and domain, to be used for malicious purposes

Godai Group, a San Francisco-based information security firm, says it has discovered that 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies are vulnerable to Doppelganger Domains.

A Doppelganger Domain is a domain spelled identically to a legitimate fully qualified domain name (FQDN) but missing the dot between host/subdomain and domain, to be used for malicious purposes. Doppelganger Domains are used by e-mail as attackers to gather information such as trade secrets, user names and passwords, and other employee information.

Attackers are already taking advantage of this vulnerability and they can be harvesting sensitive information from your company already.” said Garrett Gee, founder of Godai Group. “We want to bring awareness to companies so that they can further protect their information”.

Godai Group offers a free white paper about the threat of Doppelganger Domains and mitigation strategies.