Star sites host most malware

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Sep 13, 2006

Celebrities bigger lure than sex, says McAfee.

A report on adware and spyware from McAfee has stated that celebrity sites, rather than those pushing pornography or other widely distrusted content, are the 'most prolific distributors of adware'. Over 16% of sites blacklisted by McAfee's SiteAdvisor web filtering software were dedicated to celebrity worship, compared to around 11% each for sites carrying screensavers and 'adult' sites.

The company has identified 450 separate adware families, and 4,000 variants, a tenfold increase over the levels seen five years ago. Among other figures included in the report, over 12 million computers worldwide are believed to be compromised and in use as part of a botnet, and 97% of people in a survey could not spot an unsafe site.

The full report is apparently available somewhere on the McAfee website, here.

Posted on 13 September 2006 by Virus Bulletin

 Tags

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.