Shortened URLs Drive Need for New Security

Symantec has released their July Intelligence Report, naming the use of shortened URL’s as a rising threat to security. The options for shortening long URL's to a more manageable length are quickly proliferating with both Google and Facebook getting into the link shortening game. The shortened URL's are easier to send via e-mail, and they are a requirement for Twitter's 140-character limitation, but they also introduce security risks.

Social networking sites--especially Twitter with its 140-character message limitation--have driven the use of URL shortening services. Services like Bit.ly and TinyURL take the long URL and replace it with a much shorter alias URL. The net result is a URL that is much less cumbersome to communicate, but that hides the real URL behind it. Attackers can take advantage of the shortened alias to link to malicious sites.

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