Symantec Lists Dirtiest Websites of Summer 2009
Symantec got its hands down in the muck Aug. 19 with a list of the "Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009." These are the worst of the worst:100 sites dirty enough to make a malware author smile. According to Symantec, the average number of threats for those on the list is a whopping 18,000 per site. Forty of the 100, however, have more than 20,000 each. Malware was the prevalent threat on the sites, but they also featured browser exploits and other security risks, according to Symantec. Three-quarters of the sites have been spreading malware for more than six months. Not surprisingly, many of the sites (48 percent) feature adult content. However, the remainder play host to a variety of subject matter, ranging from deer hunting to figure skating. An incomplete list can be found here. "This list underscores what our research shows -- there has been exponential growth in the number of online threats that are constantly evolving as cyber-criminals look for new ways to target your money, identity or assets. In 2008, most new infections occurred while people were surfing the Web," Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of Symantec's Consumer Business Unit, said in a statement. |
Comments (1)
Web browsers are the dirty public restrooms of the software world. Any web page rendered in front of a user may be supported by dozens of different web servers, one of which may be placing grotesque content into your web browser.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks mean that the more web pages we render on our browser the more likely we fall prey to a man-in-the-browser attack. This is where the cybercriminals gain a temporary foothold inside your web browser, until the web browser is restarted fresh, can can eavesdrop or inject into the most sensitive of online transactions.
For these and other reasons, I strongly recommend that folk use two or more separate web browsers to effectively compartmentalize your financial/banking web activities from your others, for example.
http://www.blueridgenetworks.com/securitynowblog/endpoint_security/dual-web-browsers-can-avoid-information-disclosures
Yes, web browsers are starting to spawn separate processes for each of the active tabs/windows of browser. However, I'll wait to see how this works out over time before declaring the compartmentalization challenge solved.
The other major challenge is containing each of the web browsers in case one of the web servers one visits injects malicious content that exploits a programming mistake in the web browser software or one of its plug-ins or helper applications to in effect break-out and infect the entire PC. Place each web browser under guard with security software such as AppGuard because your anti-virus/spyware has less than a 50-50 chance of recognizing one of these attacks before they occur. There are alternatives to AppGuard. Go to a reputable download portal such as at Cnet, Tucows, or Softpedia, for example, and try them out until you find something you're comfortable with. It won't cost you anything to try but some time.
Posted by Eirik Iverson | August 21, 2009 11:52 AM