Most users who peruse Russian web-pages were sent out a letter that stated a new domain name uralsvyazinform.com (an almost identical copy of uralsvyazinform.ru, the name of the Urals’ major telecommunication provider) had been registered recently. Uralsvyazinform.com is currently hosting a dating site and a link offering to buy this domain name.

Experts believe Uralsvyazinform must have been attacked by cybersquatters – people who register popular domain names in order to sell them later at a much more significant price. Cybersquatters might be trying to make the mobile operator buy this domain in order to avoid the damage that could be done to the company’s reputation if some dubious information happens to be available via a resource whose name resembles that of Uralsvyazinform so much. It is also possible that these cybersquatters might take some steps to urge the company to buy the name in the very near future.

On the other hand, the new domain name could be acquired by someone who is interested in hurting Uralsvyazinform. In this case, the site would offer information and misinformation that would affect the company’s position on the market. In the meantime, Uralsvyazinform is a business whose shares can be traded through a stock exchange.

Some analysts say Uralsvyazinform could have avoided these problems if it had been more thoughtful and made sure it registered the domain names in all the international domain zones rather than just in the .ru one.

Uralsvyazinform has not reacted to the possible threat in any way yet. ‘We’ve read about this cyber attack, but we don’t know why it happened and we are not even sure this is an attack after all,’ Valery Kostarev, the spokesperson for Uralsvyazinform’s General Director, said to UrBC.