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Cameroon the New Hotbed of Malware
garg0yle writes "According to McAfee, more than a third of Cameroon domains (TLD of .cm) are infested with viruses or other not-so-fun party treats. Given that it's very easy to mis-type .com as .cm, this puts the computers of a lot of fat-fingered typists in peril. Second place on the most-infested domains list goes to China (.cn), while Hong Kong (last year's 'winner') is now comfortably middle-of-the-pack."
I rarely miss the 'o' key altogether, more commonly I press a different one accidentally, like 'cpm' or 'con'.
Really? I've never done it. Never. /me goes to point .cm to 127.0.0.1 .
to just block the whole Net? That way, you can't visit any website, thus avoid all websites hosting malware. Either that or have a patched, updated browser, and use smart surfing habits.
Most modern browsers insert .com automatically if no top level domain exist in the URL.
Beef jerky time.
Given that it's very easy to mis-type .com as .cm, ...
I can safely say I've never done this. I've made other errors - such as ending up in Estonia's (.ee) web space on occasion, since I work in an electrical engineering department. But I can't believe leaving out the "o" from ".com" is particularly easy or at all common.
Now if you wanted to talk about Colombia (.co) being a frequent typo for .com domains, then I might find it more believable. I have done that on rare occasions.
#DeleteChrome
I have n "" letter n my keybard, yu insensitive cld!
...they make those delightful coconut cookies. I think we can forgive them.
What is "they" in that sentence, or did you mean "TLDs" instead of "websites"?
.og doesn't exist. You might want to consult a list of TLDs before you ask a bunch of "what about" questions. Or install a robust browser and try to load the url instead of just wondering about it.
typing *.cm instead of .com is as simple as having an o key that gets stuck occasionally and not noticing the typo. All it takes is a keyboard that needs a good cleaning and a user that isn't paying enough attention.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
It depends on the policies of the registrar for those top level domains. Some countries allow free for all registration of domain names, others restrict registration to local companies and citizens only. Also many country tlds require specific sub-domains such as .com.co, which reduce the usefulness of those domains for typo-squatters.
I can't remember the last time I typed "com".
Seriously - with ctrl+enter, who needs to?
I knew a guy called Teh but unfortunately Microsoft tools auto correct that to The.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
While I can believe that .cm is a mistype for .com, what about .co, .con, .om? They don't seem to be high risk websites. I also bet that .con is a more common mistype than .cm
It hardly matters. What many of the press reports (including El Reg) seem to ignore is the second most risky TLD in the world: .com.
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that, because of the size and popularity of the TLD, .com is significantly more of a threat to the average Internet user than .cm.
And while we're at it, how about a link to the actual report? (warning: PDF)
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Opendns has an option to automatically 'correct' .cm requests to .com, which I always turn on. If Cameroon does not want people doing this, then it would have to police it's domain closely, instead of using it as a cash cow.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
.CONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
In any case, if (as the article claims) one third of Cameroon domains host malware, the implication is that two thirds don't. I would be very curious to know what percentage of US domains host malware.
Regardless of the answer, the appropriate response is to use a robust browser and block individual sites, not block out whole nations. Otherwise one might just as well move to China.
That different nations treat their TLDs differently. Some sell them to anyone who wants one. You can register them as long as you are willing to pay whatever fee it is they ask. The .tv domain is one such domain. Others make the domains available, but only to people or organizations that meet certain requirements like citizenship. Canada (.ca) would be one like that. Any Canadian can have a .ca domain if they are willing to pay for it, but non-Canadians can't buy one. Still others only use their domain for government or internal functions. The .us domain was like that at one time. You could get it only as an entity like a county government or a high school or something (it is now open for registration). Finally some countries simply don't do anything with their TLD, it just isn't used at all and there's no way to get it.
So just because a TLD exists, doesn't mean it can be used for any given purposes.
Maybe because it is a world wide web, and some people who live in the US may not have as limited of interests as you?
You should be grateful you're not here where we have .co.uk addresses. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've typed in .cock and got something unexpected popping up on my monitor...
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it