Symantec Releases ‘Top 100 Malicious Websites’ List

Security company 'Symantec' has just published its list of the 100 dirtiest websites, saying that the sites could place web surfers in danger of various malware threats. Majority of these websites, according to the company, are infected with viruses.

Hundred sites that Symantec has listed, on average, contain 18,000 e-threats for each website, with 40% containing more than 20,000 e-threats. The firm further reported that a particular site, which apparently offered catering services to restaurants, contained 23,414 security threats.

Natalie Connor, Spokeswoman for Norton Symantec, said - a visitor, who simply views any of the dirty websites on the Top 100 List without clicking or even downloading anything, could become infected and expose his private data to cyber criminals, as reported by The Australian on August 20, 2009.

Describing how the infection occurs, Ms. Connor said that people failed to understand that if someone entered something into a website, he actually brought down information that could be accompanied with malware. Subsequently, computer attackers could grab personal data with the help of keyloggers that they surreptitiously planted on the user's system, Ms. Connor explained.

In addition, she stated that there was a trend for hackers to exploit website vulnerabilities that affected both Mac and Windows users because cyber criminals grew more and more sophisticated. She also said that even if as small as 1% of online users became convinced with a scammer's tale and divulged the details of their credit or debit cards, the ensuing losses to those users could be enormous.

Researchers at Symantec further disclosed that they found a whopping 75% of the 100 dirtiest websites as distributing malicious software for over 6 months.

Unsurprisingly, nearly 48% of all the dirty websites presented pornographic content, while surprisingly, the other 52% listed dealt with random subjects like deer hunting, figure skating, catering, electronics and legal services.

Commenting on this point, Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate at Symantec, said that the amount of Internet attacks had grown exponentially, as online crooks hunted for novel methods for targeting people's identity, assets and/or money, as reported by CIO on August 19, 2009.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/4/2009