Mirror Sites

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MIRROR SITES

For companies that rely on the Internet to generate revenue, obtain new customers and investors, and maintain or build relationships with existing customers and investors, slow connections and crashes can spell disaster. Mirror sites are cloned or alternate versions of the same Web site. Companies that receive heavy traffic often create mirror sites to resolve potential problems caused by excess demand on one or several servers—the computers used to host Web sites. They also create mirror sites as part of disaster-recovery plans for the sake of preserving all of the information contained on their Web site in the event a server crashes or is damaged.

Mirror sites can be accessed in different ways. In one case, visitors to a Web site might be automatically directed to the mirror site when traffic exceeds a certain level or the main server crashes. This process is usually unnoticeable to the visitor. If a company's local server crashes in Chicago, it could have a second server running at the same physical location that takes over, or one in Minneapolis or Boston that immediately accepts traffic in the event of a problem. Visitors also may be given an option to choose one of several different mirror sites depending on their geographic location, especially in the case of international Web sites. For example, a British company might host several servers in the United States to improve ease of accessibility for U.S. customers. This is because the path from the user's computer (client) may be closer to one of a company's Web servers than another, meaning faster access. Visitors are often given an option to access one of several mirror sites when downloading files or programs via the Internet.

In addition to serving as fail-over tools and backups, the term mirror site also can be used to describe Web sites used for malicious purposes by hackers or disgruntled individuals. In this scenario, a phony version of a legitimate Web site is created, with inaccurate, harmful, libelous, or scandalous information about the company and its employees, plans, products, or services. By the time the imposters are caught and shut down, a great deal of damage already may have been done. Besides creating public relations disasters for the target company, fraudulent mirror sites also have the potential to deflate or increase the value of a company's stock and positively or negatively impact its bottom line in other ways.

One example of a malicious mirror site involved an engineer at PairGain Technologies Inc. According to Legal Assistant Today, the engineer posted a false Web page announcing that his company was going to be acquired by an Israeli telecommunications firm. Resembling the physical look of a leading news service, the page created an investment spurt that resulted in a 31-percent stock price increase for PairGain. Because of schemes like these, it is no surprise that the Worldwide E-Commerce Fraud Prevention Network found 50 percent of U.S. businesses saw online fraud as a significant problem, as reported in Nua Internet Surveys. Ten percent of the companies surveyed identified fraud as the most significant problem they faced.

To alleviate the potential risk of malicious mirror sites, Across the Board cited suggestions from Director's Monthly encouraging companies to buy Web site addresses that were very similar to their own (to prevent them from falling into unscrupulous hands); take steps to maintain good relations with employees, who hold the potential to cause sabotage; and to weigh the merits of going after imposters when discovered, since increased attention can cause unwanted traffic and attention to the phony site.