Re: Verisign's SiteFinder

[Scott Weeks <sweeks () SANDIEGO EDU>]

Verisign is abusing their monopoly over the .com and .net domains to force
folks who mistype a URL to go to their webpage.  There they put in links
to what they think you meant to type.  They make money (current estimates
are 100 to 150 million per year) by telling companies their link will be
advertised at the top of the suggested links page.

They were entrusted with a public resource and now they've decided to
abuse their control over said public resource.  Monopolistic tendencies if
there were ever any...   >:-(

scott


On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, Omar Herrera wrote:

:  Verisign seems to be doing something "weird" with this service. There
:  are many discussions around this everywhere, here is a sample of what
:  seems to be going on:
:
:  http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030926S0003
:
:  I have not reviewed all the information with detail but it seems that
:  Verisign is being accused of doing some sort of traffic hijacking.
:
:  Omar Herrera, CISSP
:
:  Instituto Tecnol?gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey,
:  Mexico City Campus
:  Information security topic and laboratory
:
:
:  > -----Mensaje original-----
:  > De: The EDUCAUSE Security Discussion Group Listserv
:  > [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] En nombre de Matthew Dalton
:  > Enviado el: Viernes, 26 de Septiembre de 2003 01:01 PM
:  > Para: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
:  > Asunto: [SECURITY] Verisign's SiteFinder
:  >
:  > Has anyone else out there notices an increase in bad traffic filling
:  up
:  > their queues since the SiteFinder "service" went into affect?  If so,
:  what
:  > are other people doing about it from a technological standpoint and/or
:  > awareness standpoint?  If you want to reply to me off-list, I will be
:  > happy to summarize to both lists the results.  Thanks.
:  >
:  > --
:  >
:  ************************************************************************
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:  > |Matthew Dalton                     |Phone: (585)273-1721
:  |
:  > |ITS Security Group                 |Email:
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:  > |University of Rochester            |
:  |
:  > |Rochester, NY 14620                |
:  |
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