A major problem is in the store for the Google map users much to the mileage of the cyber criminals on the wait. Top cyber security experts, of late, have started talking of a major vulnerability in the link service that could reach the malicious elements.
The experts doing extensive research in the country and abroad say that the hackers have not an effective mechanism to redirect the Google map users to go into another website in the absence of URLs. But the element that could help them cash in on is the open redirect vulnerability which could redirect the users to the sites in question.
According to what the experts claimed to have found, the hackers keep banking on the use of URL shortener which help them hiding the links from the malware sites. An affected Google map user is redirected to a page in question before the phishing links are allowed to be shared in the Google map.
That’s the more or less of what the researchers say. But there is hardly any scope to deal with the links in question in the absence of a mechanism to counter it. Same problem persists here to configure a fraudulent URL since Google map with this URL feature is an unofficial product.
A recent blog post has observed that the code that could take the Google map users to redirection should only send users to URLs which matches a pattern or list of links. Its simple – if the URL in the link parameter isn’t a Google Map, there’s no reason to allow the redirection.
Unless and until the Google Map users remain alert and vigilant the cybercriminals might keep striking round-the-clock. That’s what the experts conclude before coming out with an effective mechanism to counter the menace.
