TLD .zip: A really bad idea.

TLD .zip: A really bad idea.
Photo by Wicliff Thadeu / Unsplash

TLD is an acronym for Top Level Domain. You are all familiar with this: .com, .edu, .org, etc.

Some genius decided to that it would be a good idea to add .zip and .mov to the list of top level domains.

.zip and .mov are common file extensions for ZIP archives and MPEG4 files.

You can read more about why this is a bad idea here:

New ZIP domains spark debate among cybersecurity experts
Cybersecurity researchers and IT admins have raised concerns over Google’s new ZIP and MOV Internet domains, warning that threat actors could use them for phishing attacks and malware delivery.

If you don't want to read the article, below is the most important part of the article:

What should you do?

The reality is that you do not need to do anything extra than you are already doing to protect yourself from phishing sites.

As everyone should already know, it is never safe to click on links from people or download files from sites you do not trust.

Like any link, if you see a .zip or .mov link in a message, research it before clicking on it. If you are still unsure if the link is safe, do not click on it.

By following these simple steps, the impact of the new TLDs will be minimal and not significantly increase your risk.

However, the exposure to these links will likely increase as more applications automatically turn ZIP and MOV filenames into links, giving you one more thing to be careful about when online.