Beware ZIP Domains!

 

This is actually a public service announcement about the new .zip top level domains out there. They’re dangerous, and you need to learn how to watch out for them.

Transcription:

Hey folks, welcome to another HeroPress Tip of the Week. This week’s tip is not about WordPress, nor about HeroPress. This is actually a general Internet Public Service Announcement. Someone has released a top-level domain called “.zip.” Now top-level domain is the last three letters of any domain name or sometimes two so .com, .org, .net, .mil, .eu, .uk, all of those. There are many now. There used to be just 10 or 15 and now there are literally hundreds. And they released a “.zip”. So you can go to website.zip or example.zip. 

Now, you may recall that there is a kind of file called a zip file that holds programs or collection of other files, kind of anything. And this makes it very confusing to be able to tell by looking at a link whether or not you’re going to click on a file and download it or go to a website that could have anything in it. You can get them for as cheaply as $15 a year from Google and just set it up and do anything you want with it. It’s a normal website domain name. 

However, security analysts around the web are universally pointing out the incredible danger of this. Because you don’t know if you click if you’re getting a file or you’re going to a website full of malware. And that website might still deliver to you a zip file, as well as the malware. You can’t know without clicking, and that’s dangerous. 

So the point of my video today is simply to make you aware there are websites out there that end in .zip. So be careful about what you’re clicking on and where you’re going, and think about whether or not you trust the website that is sending you to this zip file. I hope you find this useful.