Malware-infected websites surged 233 percent in first half of 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Websites infected with malware grew at a 233 percent pace during the first six months of 2009, while more than three-quarters of sites containing malicious code were legitimate websites that had been compromised, according to a new report.
In its IT security report for the first half of the year, Websense Security Labs said the growth of malicious sites exploded by 671 percent over the previous year. Mass compromises of legitimate sites contributed to the trend.
Hackers can insert malicious code into legitimate sites using a technique called SQL injection. Sites infected in this way can redirect site visitors to other malware sites with Trojans like Gumblar, Beladen and Nine Ball.
Web 2.0 sites allowing user-generated content are a top target for cybercriminals and spammers this year. Websense Security Labs found that 95 percent of comments to blogs, chat rooms and message boards are spam or malicious.
The convergence of blended Web and email threats continues to increase. Websense Security Labs reports that 85.6 percent of all unwanted emails in circulation during the first half of 2009 contained links to spam sites or malware sites.
Recent research by Google found that the number of compromised sites on its list of malware-hosting URLs has grown to more than 300,000 this year.
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