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Most Malicious Websites Hosted In U.S.
Mike Sachoff
Staff Writer
2010-03-10
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More than 40 percent of the world's malicious websites are hosted in the United States, according to a new research study from AVG Technologies.
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The AVG research study is based on the analysis of threats reported during the last 6 months from AVG's 110 million global users of its LinkScanner security product. The research indicates an increase in malware serving websites targeting end users, which usually focus on stealing online baking information, credit card information, personal identities and passwords to social sites.
After the United States countries hosting the most malicious websites include Germany and China at just five percent each. Many of these malware-serving websites are legitimate sites compromised by hackers to serve exploits on their behalf. In total, exploitive servers were found in nearly 4,600 locations throughout the U.S.
AVG says it is important to note the research makes no statement about who owns or is directing the servers and the criminal networks are located all over the world.
"The results of this study shatter the myth that malicious code is primarily hosted in countries where e-crime laws are less developed," said Karel Obluk, Chief Technology Officer, AVG Technologies. "Our research shows that malicious content is much more likely to show up on web servers in the U.S. than one in Asia or Eastern Europe. This makes perfect sense since the USA is a primary target market for the criminals and has rich and mature Internet infrastructure making the threats both highly accessible and cheap to host."
"What is most striking is the clear rise in the number of malicious servers in the last six months. Today's hacking techniques are highly evasive so the average user cannot tell if a website is serving malware or not. A web security product is needed."
About the Author:
Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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