If you visit a website with broken external links, it is possible that the site has been compromised by cybercriminals aiming to harm reputations and defraud you.
An attacker taking over your abandoned, expired, or invalid external links and exploiting them for malicious or fraudulent purposes is known as broken link hijacking.
An active website will almost certainly have a number of external links that perform various functions. Some of these links may expire over time and you may be unaware of it. You continue to operate your website, completely unaware of the expired links.
Because cyber attackers are continuously seeking weaknesses in systems to exploit, they stumble find outdated or abandoned links and use them to their advantage.
For example, your website may have an external link to a provider of web analytics services. After a while, you transfer to a different web analytics service provider. You remove the link since you no longer utilize the prior one.
Although the link is no longer relevant to your website, it is still operational and receiving visitors. An attacker notices this and seizes control of the connection. They might take advantage of you and your readers.
For example, if your web link expires and the attacker obtains the linked domain, they may post stuff that is completely unrelated to your original content. Such content may be insulting, deceptive, or malicious, as well as contrary to your values.
What is put on an account or page is controlled by the person who has access to it. Cybercriminals can use this to impersonate their victims.
Celebrities and public people are more likely to be impersonated. This group of persons is influential and has a large following.
When an attacker takes over a public figure’s abandoned web page or social media account, they pose as the original owner and disseminate harmful stuff. Because these popular people’s followers hold them in high regard, they may follow the directions of the material before realizing that their role model is being impersonated.
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