Porn sites no longer most dangerous places

Published Jun 1, 2012

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Pornography websites are no longer the most “dangerous” places on the web when it comes to picking up viruses.

Security experts Symantec have released their annual report on the state of malicious software, and pornographic sites now rank 10th as the riskiest to visit.

In top place are blogs and other “web communication” sites, of which 20 percent are infected.

A mere two percent of pornographic sites are infected – a major turnaround for the internet, where the “grey” world of porn used to be synonymous with virus infection.

But with malicious software increasingly delivered via infected code injected into “innocent” websites through adverts or other means, it seems cyber-crooks have deserted pornographic sites.

Fifteen percent of web hosting sites are infected, and 10 percent of general business sites.

Spam e-mails have also dropped down the list as a means of delivery, with 13 percent fewer than 2010 – and most using links to infected websites, rather than files within an e-mail.

The rate of malicious software infection is increasing – especially on cellphones.

“Symantec blocked a total of over 5.5 billion malware attacks in 2011, an 81 percent increase over 2010. Web based attacks increased by 36 percent, with over 4 500 new attacks each day,” said the company.

The number of new viruses, worms and trojans also increased, with 403 million new variants of malware being created last year, a 41 percent increase over 2010.

Symantec also warn that computer users who considered themselves “safe” are not – with Mac users now being targeted by virus writers.

Cellphone users were also increasingly the targets of virus attacks – cellphone vulnerabilities continued to rise, with 315 discovered last year. – Daily Mail

Sites ranked by infection risk:

l Blogs/Web communications

l Hosting/personal sites

l Business/economy

l Education/reference

l Technology

l Entertainment/music

l Automotive

l Health/medicine

l Pornography

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