Location
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii
Event Website
https://hicss.hawaii.edu/
Start Date
3-1-2024 12:00 AM
End Date
6-1-2024 12:00 AM
Description
Cybercriminals regularly impersonate organizations when carrying out attacks. This paper investigates a tactic that has not been studied previously. In so-called doppelganger attacks, miscreants register domains similar to legitimate subdomains used by organizations. Investigation of domain registration data from 2009-2022 uncovers 84,952 1st-party doppelganger attacks that mimic valid subdomains of organization websites, plus a further 5,448 3rd-party doppelgangers in which service providers used by organizations are impersonated. By analyzing patterns of the gathered data, the paper studies how victims are affected and attackers organize their activities. It is hoped that by raising awareness to this attack technique, future malicious activities may be curtailed.
Recommended Citation
Simpson, Geoffrey and Moore, Tyler, "Identifying Subdomain Doppelganger Attacks against Companies" (2024). Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2024 (HICSS-57). 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-57/st/digital_forensics/3
Identifying Subdomain Doppelganger Attacks against Companies
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii
Cybercriminals regularly impersonate organizations when carrying out attacks. This paper investigates a tactic that has not been studied previously. In so-called doppelganger attacks, miscreants register domains similar to legitimate subdomains used by organizations. Investigation of domain registration data from 2009-2022 uncovers 84,952 1st-party doppelganger attacks that mimic valid subdomains of organization websites, plus a further 5,448 3rd-party doppelgangers in which service providers used by organizations are impersonated. By analyzing patterns of the gathered data, the paper studies how victims are affected and attackers organize their activities. It is hoped that by raising awareness to this attack technique, future malicious activities may be curtailed.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-57/st/digital_forensics/3