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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.'"
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
Slashdot needs to focus on real nerd stuff. For example, my computer is really slow lately and should have more links on how to deal with that!
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 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.
They just did. This article is on exactly that topic. :-P
probably take a close second to pron.
Rick B.
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.
On the other hand, the kind of person that surfs for porn in a public place is the kind you want to clean up after, computer viruses or not. She's making a smart move, if for the wrong reason.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic/rhetorical
...nothing on your HD is touched.
What hard drive? ;-)
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.
Because when I want to take a ten minute break for random browsing, I *really* want to shut down everything I'm in the middle of doing and reboot twice.
OTOH, if more porn sites said they were best viewed on Linux, I'm sure it would help market.. er... penetration.
According to quite a few people, yes. Pornography exploits women by treating them as objects or "pieces of meat" for sinful men. There are many who hold such opinions and who argument and lobby strongly for pornography to be heavily censored or more preferable banned in order to protect women and especially children.
Funnily enough, most of these same people beleive a woman's place is in the home, subservient to her husband, and largely removed from the democratic process. So something tells me they're not in it for the women they're supposedly fighting for.
May the Maths Be with you!
I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic/rhetorical
Where I come from, we shorten that sentence to "wooosh".
Totally agree.
I personally have never had any problems whatsoever getting my hands (err... eyes rather) on pr0n, without any sort of virus nonsense. It still amazes me how gullible are, installing those bullshit porno-dialers on their computers and getting a $500 phone bill the next month for calling long distance to Christmas Island or some damned place.
For all intents and purposes, the pornography-access problem is solved - there is no incentive for anyone would pay for pornography anymore. Even if you locked-down every leaked porno video from a paysite, there are still tons of insanely hot (and stupid) girlfriends, hood rats, and drunk chicks willing to get nekkid for the testosterone-charged 4chan hordes - completely free of charge. Some even fuck on camera and let their boyfriends upload it to youporn. And there is always beloved Bittorrent and Usenet.
Just be sure to have NoScript (and maybe RequestPolicy too) on to be safe. TrueCrypt is also handy for securely storing the hit parade.
Pornography exploits women
Hell, if that's being "exploited" then somebody exploit me.