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Number of Infected Websites Doubled Compared to Last Year


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According to a report from Web security vendor Dasient, the number of infected websites detected during the third quarter of 2010 doubled compared to the same period last year.

In particular, data collected by the company, showed over 1.2 million websites infected with some form of threat during Q3, up from under 600,000 during the third quarter in 2009.

This suggests the Web is an increasingly popular malware distribution vector, particularly because of drive-by download attacks, which are usually completely transparent to victims.

These attacks involve rigging legit Web pages with exploits that target vulnerabilities in outdated versions of popular software like Java, Adobe Reader, Flash Player or the browsers themselves.

An unprotected visitor landing on such a page would generally have no any idea that malicious code was dropped and executed on their computer.

Another popular Web-based malware distribution technique is called malvertizing and involves getting malicious ads onto legit websites. or pushing it by compromising an ad server.

Cyber criminals can push such malvetizements by compromising ad servers or by tricking advertising teams into accepting them on their websites.

According to Dasient, an average number of 1.5 million malvertizements were served on a daily basis during this past quarter. The average lifespan of such ads was calculated at 11 days.

A separate threat are scareware websites which distribute fake antivirus products. These are pushed at the top of Web search results via black hat SEO techniques.

Overall, .com remained the most commonly used TLD for attack sites during Q3. It was followed by .ru, .info, .org, .in, .cn, .net, .name, .biz and .us, in the top ten.

Dasient points out that the abuse rate for .ru has increased compared to the second quarter, while the one for .cn has decreased. This is consistent with reports from other security vendors that cover the same period.

"As we approach 2011, we predict that as the usage specifically of social media web sites continues to grow, drive-by-downloads and rogue anti-virus will be used more aggressively on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter," the company concludes.

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