Computers Get Infected Owing to Trusted Sites

Avast the anti-virus developer tracked hackers who contaminated some 5m computers when the systems accessed websites users thought were secure.

Said Senior Virus Analyst Jiri Sejtko with Avast, the risk was within the known, daily trustworthy areas across the Net that were as routine-like as one's morning coffee. Securecomputing.net.au published this in news on February 21, 2011.

Sejtko further said that people reported the company of false-positive identifications as well as even turned off the anti-virus on their PCs so they could get onto their wanted website, but then regretted of having done so.

In the meantime, Avast believes there are 3 types of malware that are exploiting users' trust. These are the Ill group ("port 8080" contamination) that covers over 3,400 domains disseminating malware along with 200,000 contaminated domains; a self-replicating bot network, Kroxxu, which contains 300 malware disseminating domains that last for more than 3 months; as well as a fake anti-virus disseminator JS:Prontexi that so far has posted over 5m bogus adverts.

Technology-wise, each of these malware is different; however, they're extremely proven for trapping unsuspecting users.

Sejtko added that con artists executed their operations in cycles, developing fresh malware variants based on what they learnt from past era criminals.

Here it deserves mention that MessageLabs of Symantec another security company confirmed Avast's point through its statement during mid-2009, according to which, the presumption about the majority of Web-based malicious programs emanating from just established, short-lived, shoddy, adult websites was actually getting to be an old-fashioned idea. Present day hackers were abusing trustworthy, reputed websites which they could hijack.

Indeed, to cite an instance, Symantec published data it gathered during May 2009 that revealed that 84.6% of web-domains, which security software blocked because they allowed malware on them, had been in existence for more than a year. Merely 15.4% had been for less than 12 months, while 10.2% didn't even complete 30 days, and 3.1% not even 7 days.

Eventually, for avoiding any malware infection, specialists on Internet safety recommend that end-users should pay heed to any warning which their anti-virus software may produce instead of ignoring it.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 2/26/2011