DNS - U.S. Servers Host Over 40 Percent of World's Malicious Web Sites: AVG Research

AVG Technologies, a provider of security products with nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime, has announced that according to the results of a research study conducted by it, most malicious Web sites are hosted on U.S. servers, which is contrary to popular opinion that these kinds of Web sites originate from servers located in other countries including China. The security products offered by AVG have been protecting more than 110 million consumers and small businesses in 167 countries from the ever-growing incidence of Web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet.

 

The company carried out a comprehensive analysis of threats reported during the last 6 months from AVG’s 110 million worldwide users of its LinkScanner Web security product, and the new report is based upon this study. The report says that the number of Web sites that serve malware has been seen to increase dramatically. These Web sites target end users and typically focus on stealing online banking credentials, credit card information, personal identities and passwords to social sites.

 

AVG has developed innovative crowd-sourced methods for analyzing Web content for malicious or dangerous intent as reported by its vast network of LinkScanner installations worldwide, which help in the detection and analysis of these exploits. Further, the research conducted by the company indicates that malicious code is not just an issue with outlaw servers located in countries with weak laws and lax enforcement.

 

According to a shocking revelation in the study, after monitoring active Web servers serving exploits around the world, AVG found out that 44 percent of the corrupted servers are hosted in the United States, followed by Germany and China at just 5 percent each. What is even more amazing is that many of these malware-serving Web sites are legitimate sites, and hackers have compromised them to serve exploits on their behalf. In total, exploitive servers were found in nearly 4,600 locations throughout the U.S.

 

One more important point to be noted in the study report is that it doesn’t provide any statement about who owns or is directing the efforts of these servers, as criminals and/or criminal networks located anywhere in the world can do that easily.

 

In the words of Karel Obluk, chief technology officer, AVG Technologies, the results of this study shatter the myth that malicious code is primarily hosted in countries where e-crime laws are less developed, and AVG’s research shows that malicious content is much more likely to show up on Web servers in the U.S. than one in Asia or Eastern Europe. Obluk noted that this makes perfect sense since the U.S. is a primary target market for the criminals and has rich and mature Internet infrastructure making the threats both highly accessible and cheap to host. 

In January, AVG Technologies partnered with GlobalCollect (News - Alert), a provider of local e-payment solutions for international Customer Not-Present “CNP” channels such as the Internet, mail and telephone orders, to facilitate electronic payments in the 167 countries where AVG software is currently available.