The "dirtiest" 100 Web sites have an average of 18,000 threats, with 40 of them each exceeding 20,000, according to security vendor Symantec.
"Worst of the worst" sites detected by its Norton Safe Web service are plagued mostly by malware, followed by security risks and browser exploits, the company said Thursday in a statement.
In addition, 75 percent of the dirtiest Web sites have distributed malware for more than six months.
Nearly half (48 percent) are sites with adult content, but there are also subjects ranging from purchasing electronics to figure skating and deer hunting. Simply visiting such sites--not downloading files or clicking on links--could put a user at risk of system infection; and worse, one's identity, personal and financial information may even land in the hands of cybercriminals, Symantec warned.
Among the blacklisted was aladelnet, a U.S. site found to carry 56,371 threats, including the Downloader Trojan.
Several Chinese sites--qsng.cn, stock888.cn and yt118.com--were included in Symantec's sample list of dirtiest sites.
"This list underscores what our research shows--there has been exponential growth in the number of online threats that are constantly evolving as cybercriminals look for new ways to target your money, identity or assets," Rowan Trollope, Symantec's senior vice president for consumer business, said in the statement. "In 2008, most new infections occurred while people were surfing the Web."
Showing posts with label Symantec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Symantec. Show all posts
Spam techniques now 'triple threat'
Spammers are combining their circumvention techniques into a "triple threat" to increase the efficacy of their attacks, according to Symantec.
Paul Wood, MessageLabs intelligence senior analyst, Symantec, said in a statement spammers are combining three more established spam techniques--Captcha-breaking, social networking spam and using Web mail--in an attempt to fool spam filters.
Spammers have for the past few years used sophisticated character recognition software to break the Captcha system. Captcha is a verification system commonly found on e-mail account sign-up pages, which displays a set of graphically-distorted numbers and alphabets, meant to be readable to a human but harder for automatic software to recognize and register for an account.
The use of Web mail also shows that cybercriminals are using more reputable Web sites which are less likely to get blocked, debunking a "common misconception that [spammers] are more likely to use less-reputable Web sites...to hide malware," noted MessageLabs.
The antispam company said the number of new sites hosting malware was slashed from 3,561 in April to 1,149 in May, showing that more established-domains were being used to host malicious content. Furthermore, a huge 84.6 percent of domains blocked for hosting malware had been established for over a year.
Wood explained that newer domains tend to get flagged as suspicious because they are typically temporary sites set up just to host spam and malware, and also get shut down faster. Trustworthy older domains can be compromised through SQL injection attacks, he said.
The trend of abusing trust also extends to the proliferation of social networking spam, said Wood. Social networking sites pose a number of varying threats to users, from the availability of personal data on these sites increasing the likelihood of phishing, to the higher chances of users clicking on spam links because they trust friends who "send" it to them.
According to MessageLab, the month of May saw the global ratio of spam rise by 5.1 percent over April to hit 90.4 percent. Hong Kong was the most-spammed economy at 92.3 percent.
Paul Wood, MessageLabs intelligence senior analyst, Symantec, said in a statement spammers are combining three more established spam techniques--Captcha-breaking, social networking spam and using Web mail--in an attempt to fool spam filters.
| Spam levels of economies in the Asia-Pacific region (%) | |
| Hong Kong | 92.3 |
| China | 91.1 |
| Malaysia | 89 |
| Vietnam | 88.7 |
| Singapore | 88.4 |
| The Philippines | 88.3 |
| India | 88 |
| Indonesia | 87.1 |
| Total | 91.4 |
The use of Web mail also shows that cybercriminals are using more reputable Web sites which are less likely to get blocked, debunking a "common misconception that [spammers] are more likely to use less-reputable Web sites...to hide malware," noted MessageLabs.
The antispam company said the number of new sites hosting malware was slashed from 3,561 in April to 1,149 in May, showing that more established-domains were being used to host malicious content. Furthermore, a huge 84.6 percent of domains blocked for hosting malware had been established for over a year.
Wood explained that newer domains tend to get flagged as suspicious because they are typically temporary sites set up just to host spam and malware, and also get shut down faster. Trustworthy older domains can be compromised through SQL injection attacks, he said.
The trend of abusing trust also extends to the proliferation of social networking spam, said Wood. Social networking sites pose a number of varying threats to users, from the availability of personal data on these sites increasing the likelihood of phishing, to the higher chances of users clicking on spam links because they trust friends who "send" it to them.
According to MessageLab, the month of May saw the global ratio of spam rise by 5.1 percent over April to hit 90.4 percent. Hong Kong was the most-spammed economy at 92.3 percent.
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