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One Million Sites Infected With Malware In Q2

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the show-me-the-pinkee dept.

Trailrunner7 writes "More than one million Web domains were infected with malicious code in the second quarter of 2010 — around one percent of all active Web domains, according to new data. The number of infected domains was extrapolated from data gained through a sample scan of what Dasient describes as 'millions of Web sites,' as well as from customer deployments. It suggests that compromises of Web sites are on the rise, as attackers look to push out malicious programs through so-called drive by download attacks."

10 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Of course you have. by AnonymousClown · · Score: 3, Funny

    Web anti malware firm Dasient has published data claiming that more than 1 million Web sites were compromised in the second quarter, 2010 - a sharp increase.

    *In Sean Connery's James Bond voice* Of course they have.

    --
    RIP America

    July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001

  2. *domains* infected? What? by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A domain is a node in the DNS namespace. How does that get infected?

    If a web server hosts 20 domains, and is infected, does that count as 20 infections?

    "Web site", "domain" and "host" are not interchangeable.

  3. Um yeah.. by DrgnDancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    The only Malware we were infected by in Q2 was McAfee. It decided a few critical systems files were viruses and shut us down for hours. Stupid Malware creators.

    --
    I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    1. Re:Um yeah.. by Ironhandx · · Score: 2, Funny

      Windows 7 decided that an executable that I had on my computer(that I myself had just compiled) was a trojan and over reacted so hard that it fragged explorer.

      Fun times for all!

    2. Re:Um yeah.. by vux984 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Windows 7 decided that an executable that I had on my computer(that I myself had just compiled) was a trojan...

      I'm curious why you think Windows 7 was wrong? ;)

    3. Re:Um yeah.. by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, if it had been Linux that told him it was a trojan Linux would have been wrong, because it was his own program. But since Microsoft really owns all Windows computers (ragardless of who paid for them) Windows was right. Keep your nasty programs off of Bill's computer! You can only run what Bill allows you to run.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    4. Re:Um yeah.. by vux984 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It isn't a trojan until it gets in someone else's machine. If you know it's a trojan and you install it anyway, it's no longer a trojan.

      1) Just because he compiled it, doesn't mean he knew it was a trojan. One could download source from the web and compile it, and get a trojan as a result.

      2) Even if he wrote it, it could be the result of a multiple-personality disorder coding against him... :D

      3) I disagree that intent matters. Even if he wrote it himself, knowing full well what it was... I'm not sure I buy the idea that deliberately installing a trojan on purpose makes it any less a trojan.

      Had the king of Troy divined that the greeks's had stashed some soldiers in the 'trojan horse' and he brought it into the city anyway... and then promptly burnt it to the ground. Well... it was still a "trojan horse". Similarly when a security researcher deliberately obtains a trojan to dissect, it is still a trojan.

      A firearm isn't a weapon until it's aimed at a human

      A crossbow aimed at a rabbit is a weapon. A machine gun in a crate is a weapon. A nuclear missile waiting in its silo is a weapon.

      Indeed it would be impossible to build weapons, test weapons, find weapons, or sell weapons if they didn't exist until humans were in the cross hairs -- yet there isn't a person on the face of the earth who would be confused by any of those terms.

  4. Less and less active... by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems like in reality virus/adware/spyware infections are down to very, very low levels.

    It used to be in the late 90s to early-to-mid 2000s there would be people left and right with adware that popped up stuff and computers would grind to a halt. Today, I'm not seeing that on anyone's computer that I've done tech support for. I have seen a bunch of systems grind to a halt due to Norton/McAfee, but none caused by viruses/spyware/adware/etc. The only thing I can think of is that IE7 and beyond stepped up security enough to make a major impact.

    So even though "threat analyzers" pull up scary numbers, I'm not seeing the results in the wild.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Less and less active... by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it just means the malware authors have grown up and want a paycheck.
      It used to be that half the viruses were showy things written by amatures who wanted to fuck around.
      most of the rest were trying to cash in on ad revenue from popups.

      Now there's less money in popups(most of the big ad providers don't like being associated with malware) so the malware just sits quietly trying to steal your credit card number.
      The more stealthy the more successful.

  5. No wonder by Intron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's what I see when I go to the linked article:

    "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page [Install Missing Plugins]"

    The web is no longer a provider of linked information. It is a distributed application, portions of which want to run on my PC.

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.