What Is a Homograph Attack And How To Protect Yourself
1 min read
Summary
A homograph attack is a technique that involves misleading an unsuspecting person into thinking they are interacting with a trustworthy entity by using characters from different writing systems that look similar, such as Cyrillic, Greek or Armenian.
For example, a cybercriminal could pose as PayPal by using the Cyrillic “p” to create a phishing website designed to look like the legitimate one.
Such attacks can be used to create fake email addresses, usernames, social profiles, file names and anywhere else that a letter could be substituted with a similar-looking letter from another script to impersonate a brand or individual.
A tell-tale sign of such an attack is if a message or request comes with something unexpected, or that seems too good to be true, such as an unscheduled payment request or an enticing offer.
If a URL or email address shows minor differences from the legitimate site, such as an accented letter, this could also be a warning sign of a potential homograph attack.
There are many ways to protect yourself from such attacks, including using certain web browsers and extensions, using two-factor authentication and always manually accessing a website in a new tab.
