43,070 views|Feb 21, 2019,12:40pm EST
Here Are The Real Fake News Sites
Christopher Elliott
Christopher ElliottContributor
Travel
I'm a consumer advocate. I write about customer service.
The internet is teeming with fake news sites. That's not a political statement, but the conclusion of a new study by DomainTools, a security analysts company.

The new study analyzed some of the top media outlets in the U.S. to determine their susceptibility to domain-squatting and spoofed domains. The bogus URLs may spread disinformation or malicious code, according to DomainTools.

“As distrust of traditional media continues to grow, protecting the public from disinformation campaigns has become pertinent to the democratic process,” says Corin Imai, a senior security advisor of DomainTools.

So which news sites have the highest fake scores? And what does it mean for the average news consumer? You'll probably be surprised by the answers.

fake news site
DomainTools DOMAINTOOLS
Why study fake news sites?

Authenticity and trust are the building blocks of a terrific customer service experience. So, as a consumer advocate, and as a heavy consumer of news, I follow studies like this closely.

Today In: Lifestyle

EXPO CHICAGO Moving From Traditional September Dates To April 2021
Meet British Knitwear Extraordinaire Alex Gore Browne
Remembering U.S. Airlines That Are No Longer With Us
DomainTools' research shows how malicious actors use tricks like typosquatting and spoofing on domains as tactics to carry out malicious campaigns.

Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, relies on mistakes made by Internet users when typing a website address into a web browser. Spoofing happens when a scammer pretends to be a premium publisher. These criminal activities can potentially extract personally identifiable information, download malware to a device, or spoof news sites to spread disinformation.

PROMOTED

Civic Nation BRANDVOICE | Paid Program
College Signing Day Is For All Students—Especially Transfers
Grads of Life BRANDVOICE | Paid Program
A Diverse Approach To Scale Contact Tracing
UNICEF USA BRANDVOICE | Paid Program
Getting The Word Out In Syria: How To Stop The Spread Of Coronavirus
"It’s no secret that disinformation campaigns have been on the rise," Imai told me. "With the uptick in fake news sites in recent years, we were curious about the possible connection between typosquatting campaigns and the dissemination of disinformation. What we found is that domain names of top news outlets have indeed been spoofed, and subject to typosquatting techniques."

These are the most fake news sites

Among the news site rankings, there are a few surprises. The top news site, for example, is not a national newspaper or a computer-security site but has still managed to draw a record 52 "high risk" domains, according to DomainTools. The "safest" of the sites also fits the same description.

Here's the list of publishers with the most high-risk domains:

1. Newsday (52 historical high-risk domains)

2. The New York Times (49 historical high-risk domains)

3. The Washington Post (20 historical high-risk domains)

4. The New York Post (16 historical high-risk domains)

5. Los Angeles Times (13 historical high-risk domains)

6. New York Daily News (10 historical high-risk domains)

7. USA Today (9 historical high-risk domains)

8. The Boston Globe (6 historical high-risk domains)

9. CSO (5 historical high-risk domains)

10. Chicago Tribune (5 historical high-risk domains)

DomainTools chose an initial list of media organizations based on traffic to the legitimate site.

"We had a hunch that the media organizations with the highest readerships were likely to be more lucrative for scammers seeking to spoof domain names," says Imai. "Our team compiled a list of the top media organizations based on audience size. This methodology gave us not only a set of online properties to investigate, but also a sense of the potential pool of the criminals’ targets."

(Oh, and in case you're wondering -- Forbes didn't make the list. It's squeaky clean.)

Why fake new sites matter

For news consumers, the biggest threat is what's referred to as "typosquatting," according to DomainTools (registering Forbs.it, for example, and posting bogus posts). It's particularly important, considering how frequently users misspell words, and how easy it is to fool even vigilant internet users.

Typosquatters can look legitimate, with legitimate SSL certificates and professional websites, used to trick Internet users into a false sense of security.

The bad guys also re-purpose once valid Internet real-estate, squatting on old, once-legitimate domains. That buys them time to iron out any inconsistencies with their attack infrastructure, allowing them to escape detection, according to DomainTools.

How to avoid fake news sites

Sites that spread disinformation often take advantage of the pace at which users skim the internet and their preferred news sources for breaking news. These campaigns could potentially steal and harvest personally identifiable information, download malware to a device or spoof news sites to spread disinformation to the public, according to DomainTools.

How do you avoid a fake news site?

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on May 13^th, 2020 at 11:04am:

American News has been Fake News for many decades especially when movie star Ronny Reagan began fabricating his Star Wars motion picture.
To edit people being attacked by a USA funded Dictator and make it look like they were Terrorists attacking the victim Dictator trying to make his country great, while he was paid by the USA to keep his country weak as a possible competitor to their national security and economy.

You mean since murdoch moved there?

Thanks, Sir Spot.

John, I use Firefox with NoScript and uBlock Origin (ad blocker) and I have no problem accessing the Forbes site? I did at one stage a few years back but uBlock must have been able to work around it. For now, at least. Always a 'cat and mouse' game with ads and ad blockers.

Anyway, if we hadn't been able to read it I'm sure Richdude and The Mechanic would be able to give us a complete rundown on all the fake news sites since they obviously spend most of each and every day looking at them.

Carl D wrote on May 13^th, 2020 at 11:38am:



the site asked me to turn off my adblocker .. i declined.

It is a legitimate issue that satire is now being removed from social media because it falls under the banner of "fake news"

I've noticed some have even put a "satire" label on their publications so there is no confusion

Warning labels on everything nowadays

Wikipedia:
Quote:


Gateway pundit is one

Spot