Legitimate Sites Carry Increasing Portion Of Malware

[Peaches]

Legitimate Sites Carry Increasing Portion Of Malware

Seventy percent of the Web's top 100 sites hosted malicious content in second half of 2008, Websense lab study says

Jan 21, 2009 | 04:18 PM

By Tim Wilson

DarkReading

If you're wondering where most malware comes from, check the "favorites" list in your Web browser.

According to Websense Security Labs' newly published "State of Internet Security" report for the second half of 2008, 77 percent of Websites that carry malicious code are legitimate sites that have been compromised. This figure rose by almost 3 percent over the first six months of the year. The number of sites carrying malicious code grew by 46 percent over the course of 2008, Websense says.

Seventy percent of the top 100 sites on the Web -- most of them social networking or search engine sites -- either hosted malicious content or contained a masked redirect to lure unsuspecting victims from legitimate sites to malicious sites, according to the report. This figure represents a 16 percent increase over the first six months of 2008, Websense says.

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