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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
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
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).
Did they submit their own collections?
Porn SITES .
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
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!
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!
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.
I'm eating vanilla pudding.
Did you raid the refrigerator at the F&E clinic?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Actually no. Sex professionals take their occupation quite seriously. It is the non-professional who is lose and fast with their machines and their sexual practices. Do you think just "keeping a high moral standard" will keep you safe? Think again.
Just as with computers, preventative measure and testing are needed. For me, I run Linux, Firefox, no-script and adblock. Testing isn't quite as required for me, but I routinely check processes running and the like. Sex workers frequently get tested and people in the industry know what other people in the industry have been up to for the most part. "average people" get sex diseases a LOT more often than sex industry pros.
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
Porn!? On my malware sites??
If it rhymes it must be true.
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.
http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3565
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
How much unprotected 'face shot and swallow" is there? a lot.
How much preventative measures? Very little.
How much testing? Monthly!!
But only HIV will kick you out of the business.
The other STDs are very common if scientific reports are to be believed. Outbreaks for the other stuff prevent work for a week if AIM Healthcare is to be believed.
So if you take infected as being HIV only, sure, porn stars don't hardly have it. The other stuff can be up to 30%
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892037/
They do test, but the window period can be as high as three months with plain ELISA, down to a month if you spend extra for Western blot, and that means that when someone comes out positive, all his/her partners within that period have to be tested as well as their respective partners. It happened in 2004 (5 infected) and 2009 (16 infected).
Back on topic: I haven't gotten anything from the web *ever*, perhaps for the simple discipline of not authorizing ActiveX components, applets and other gimmicks.
But that's me; I guess less computer-literate *and* porn hungry guys make easier targets - "Yes, Ok, Yes, show me the movies already!".
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
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.
Back on topic: I haven't gotten anything from the web *ever*, perhaps for the simple discipline of not authorizing ActiveX components, applets and other gimmicks.
But that's me; I guess less computer-literate *and* porn hungry guys make easier targets - "Yes, Ok, Yes, show me the movies already!".
I do the Linux/Firefox/Adblock/NoScript thing and also don't do the usual stupid stuff.
But that puts me in the minority and I routinely re-disinfect the computers of Windows-using friends and relatives who are not stupid and try to be careful when they browse the web or install software.
There are many ways to infect a system (even Mac and Linux) and more will always be found. It's a battle that can't be won as the economic incentive for the "enemy" is to great to cease their innovation and onslaught and the software too complex to ever "fix" completely. and there will always be trade-offs between convenience and security.
One can only take reasonable precautions and expect reasonable, not perfect, results.
The attack vector through porn sites is not likely to be fixed (no financial incentive to do it and the site operators likely don't care about malware infections they may be passing along), so you can either avoid them or use on old computer dedicated only to porn browsing (or the Linux or Windows on CD approach) .
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
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.
"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).
[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.
Infected pr0n! This is amazing news. At least to anyone who never saw Videodrome back in 1983.