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Porn Sites More Infected Than Thought
nk497 writes "Porn sites are five times as likely to host malware as previously thought, with 3.6% offering up a digital infection of some sort, according to a researchers who set up their very own adult sites for a new study. One reason for the high rate of malware is that the online porn industry makes use of affiliate programs, where one site will drive traffic to another in exchange for links, cash, or simply free pornographic material to use. Because such programs don't check who they're doing business with, and sites use disguised links and other clandestine methods to drive people to different pages, it's easy for criminals to abuse the system to spread malware. Researcher Gilbert Wondracek said, 'They inadvertently have created an ecosystem that can easily be abused on a large scale by cyber criminals, and that's worrying.'"
But that's ok... only ethically bad people use pornography, right? Right?
What? You mean risks to one part of the internet make it less safe for the rest of us? Gasp!
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
For random web browsing on assorted sites, boot up from a Linux boot CD. Your entire OS will be in memory, nothing on your HD is touched.
I'd better run a full scan just in case.
Not like I've been to as many porn sites as would be necessary to be statistically likely to have gotten infected. Several times over. Nosiree!
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
Wonder where they got the porn for their study? Did they submit their own collections? Or did they purchase it? Love to see the PO on that one.
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
according to a researchers who set up their very own adult sites for a new study.
Strictly for research purposes :)
Wow... what a shocker! Porn sites have lots of malware! Who woulda guessed?
Really... who on earth is actually surprised by this?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Weird.
That is WAY lower than I'd have expected.
Not yet?
In soviet Russia, God creates you!
I don't know the stats, but maybe it's more correct to say that malware sites are more likely to host pornography than they are to fall into other categories? It's probably the best way to attract large streams of users.
qntm.org
You might catch something playing the field if you don't use protection!
"There might be intelligent beings created by God in outer space even if there are none here on Earth." -Anonymous
Porn sites are like porn stars, both are heavily infected.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Only old men that get caught by their wives via porn mailing lists use porn sites. Kids nowadays use 4chan, which are typically more tech-savvy than their old male counterparts. Whomever uses porn sites with java on gets what they deserve. If you need to turn on java to see pictures, it's probably not a safe site. Also, providing log-in info and an e-mail address to access porn to a website that is likely compromised is a bad idea, which is why 4chan is great because you don't need to readily sign up for a premium account (lol).
I work for a facility where a large number of our computers are for public use. We do not filter access (but if children are near someone known to be surfing porn, we have that person stop surfing such material). We all know some people choose to surf porn here, though it boggles the mind why.
One day, I saw an older lady take a wet-nap style cleaning towel from the container we provide and begin cleaning the keyboard with it. I expressed my concern over using a WET-nap for an electronic part (they're for cleaning the desk, seat, hands, etc.).
Lady: But you know they watch porn on these PCs, right? ....?
Me: Yes. We aren't allowed to filter the content. But cleaning the key...
Lady: And you know these porn places are infected with all kinds of viruses, don't you?
Me:
I hope this comment is well received... I could have moderated instead!
Persecutors will be violated!
DUH
welcome to 1995 your just now figuring this out?
call these MTDs?
Shouldn't this article be tagged as "std" ?
Porn sites aren't the only ones promiscuously mixing affiliates: there's a great deal of it going on with otherwise decent web advertisers as well, with results that range from the merely annoying to just as dangerous. It's very difficult to track the sources down beyond the first few layers because the whole thing is a bunged-up mess.
probably take a close second to pron.
Rick B.
We are doomed!
I'm eating vanilla pudding.
not only because of the sloppy tech, but because of the clientele. Lots of money flowing from folks trying to lose their real identities and who are less likely than most to try and seek investigations if they get scammed. Doesn't get better than this.
Your entire OS will be in memory, nothing on your HD is touched.
Except perhaps your data files.
A well-made live CD operating system mounts your internal drives read-only, requiring escalation to administrator (cancel or allow?) to enable writing. Your files are safe.
Unsafe behavior leads to spread of viruses
We knew that qualitatively. The article provides a quantitative measure, which allows drawing stronger conclusions about how to improve security against distribution of malware through ad networks. It's the difference between "are there infections" and "how much".
film at eleven.
(Eleven what?)
Eleven hours after high noon. Before modern electronic news gathering, television news would often report the story at 6 PM and then have the "film" (footage shot on the scene) available for the 11 PM newscast.
Porn Sites More Infected Than Thought
I'm pretty sure "thoughts" aren't subject to the same kinds of infections...
We saw the same thing with captcha cracking porn and rom sites.
But some ROM sites are clean. Wii Shop Channel has plenty of (legit commercial) ROMs; the only viruses it has are in Dr. Mario Online Rx. PDRoms.de also has plenty of (legit freeware) ROMs; the only viruses are (again) in the occasional Dr. Mario clone.
Haha, you said but-related.
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
Right but they also have boobies! Maybe but me, but everything is about risk versus reward. Malware, boobies, malware, boobies... hmmm.... Seems worth it to me.
At first I thought it said "Porn Stars More Infected Than Thought"...
I have experience in this area (see my sig). Harmless fetishes have a bit of a viral quality to them, sometimes following a pattern of Step 1) Revulsion Step 2) ??? Step 3) "You know, that's kind of hot."
Adult Role Playing Forum
Is there any kind of sex that is safe? Real sex and netsex can result in an infection.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I'm just saying.
by Means of Natual Selection.
Porn!? On my malware sites??
If it rhymes it must be true.
Hello Humanoids, If you setup your own fake porn sites & they get hacked the only person to blame is yourself not the "porn". The content of the site has NOTHING to do with security and why slashdot would post this is absolutely freaking disturbing. Slow news day?
I think most of us realize that scammers, cheaters, criminals, and fraudsters prefer 2 types of targets:
1) Those who are safe/easy prey.
2) Those who they can justify doing it to, or even deserve it.
Because of too many people find porn to be embarrassing or shameful, some people may not want to report or fight back. They make themselves into easy marks. Also, it's easy to find people who want porn, especially free porn (because of embarrassment, lots of people don't want their identities and payments traced back to them for these sites).
Also, because porn is perceived as such a shady thing, it's easy for some to justify screwing over these types of people.
In the end it's about getting away with it without being plagued by a guilty conscious.
how?
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3565
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - "Arse tickling dildos"
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
For random web browsing on assorted sites, boot up from a Linux boot CD. Your entire OS will be in memory, nothing on your HD is touched.
Why not just use a virtual machine and not save changes? It would remove the issues around your local data, and be much faster without a reboot.
no comment
that you're now as likely to catch something from an internet tartlet as you are from a street-walking hooker.
Where the hell is the list of safe sites?!
-- Chaos, panic, pandemonium... My job here is done!
from tfa: "More than 90% of the 35,000 pornographic domains analysed in the study were free sites."
links, please.
One reason for the high rate of malware is that the online porn industry makes use of affiliate programs, where one site will drive traffic to another in exchange for links, cash or simply free pornographic material to use.
No, it's totally wrong.
It's simply because the most dangerous ads are the ones which pay the most.
Malware authors know that if they want to infect sites, they just have to propose more money than Google's Adsense and similar companies.
They'll recover this money after a few infections.
Also, I'm pretty sure that a lot of malware authors create free porn sites, just to avoid paying for ads.
I saw that on a lot of cracks collections sites.
That would be interesting.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
nothing on your HD is touched.
Some of us have floppies.
Have gnu, will travel.
This just in:
Water is damp.
Sites like sinful swingers has a good chat area with much adult content (/wink) and because they are run by a bunch of people that do it for the fun of it, they got no reason to host crap like spyware. Seriously, check out your local swinger/get together site and meet real people, people not out to get to your wallet through your dick.
"uhhh... I'm doing malware research..." (grin)
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
For random web browsing on assorted sites, boot up from a Linux boot CD. Your entire OS will be in memory, nothing on your HD is touched.
Unplug your HDD too. Otherwise your Linux CD can often mount your drive read/write, and if it has a vulnerable version of FF, you're owned since the default user usually has passwordless sudo privs.
I know your advice is sound from a "maximize security" point of view, but does the threat level actually justify this for average users? Do you have experience and/or have uncovered accounts of escalation from a browser vulnerability of a live CD to sudo to infecting a secondary OS which is accessible via access as data files?
Just curious (as a fellow paranoid).
I'ld like to introduce you to my big friend, the WMD that cleansed the lands of Allah: John "1/4 yardstick" Holmes. This MAN had the bravery to have untested, unprotected, anal and vaginal girl and gayman sex that sent over 3k pornstars to the bankruptcy courts with AIDS. I don't mean AIDS like the helpful teacher-AIDS, I mean the kind of AIDS that helps get these mother and fatherfuckers out of my censored videostore cubicle. Holmes is the messiah of Satan in this regard. He showed America that the only way to get rid of all these damn wicked sinners is snort some coke, get a fresh batch of AIDS from your nearby street-corner GNAA's, and then clock-in on the set to delivery the dirty package.
[citation needed], [weasel words] and so on. Personally, I assume that porn sites are just as infected as their on screen talent. Who thought they weren't?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Sites with adult content have severely limited choices when it comes to on-page ads--most advertisers don't want their banners appearing next to some glistening meat chasm. So adult site operators that want this revenue stream have to go to bottom-of-the-barrel services that are a lot less discriminating about which advertisers and their methods they accept.
Infected pr0n! This is amazing news. At least to anyone who never saw Videodrome back in 1983.