Hundreds of websites have been found to contain bizarre new words thanks to an email security filter used by US internet company Yahoo!.
The company鈥檚 security filter automatically deletes web code that could be used by hackers and replaces it with innocuous words. For example, 鈥渆val鈥� is converted to 鈥渞eview鈥�, 鈥渕ocha鈥� is changed into 鈥渆spresso鈥� and 鈥渆xpression鈥� replaced with 鈥渟tatement鈥�. The substitutions are made even if the phrase appears within a word.
The phrases are blacklisted because they could be used to embed potentially dangerous code into an email message written in HTML. This code could trick a target computer into handing over files that might include sensitive information such as usernames and passwords.
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But as well as protecting Yahoo! users, this has led to the widespread appearance of mystery words. The UK internet site NTK recently found that 640 different web sites contain the word 鈥渕edireview鈥�, in place of 鈥渕edieval鈥�.
These include historical sites, book reviews, other articles and CVs. Some people have posted questions to mailing lists asking where this new word came from.
Hiding code in email written in HTML or a web page is called cross-site scripting, and was first identified in 1997. Following the identification of numerous malicious tricks involving the technique, the US Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) issued an alert to web sites in February 2000. Yahoo鈥檚 email filter was first noticed by computer users in March 2001.