Germany and China Round out the Top Three Countries with Web Servers serving malware\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melbourne, 11 March 2010 \u2013<\/strong> AVG (AU\/NZ), the distributor for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific of the world\u2019s most popular free anti-virus software, today unveiled the results of an AVG Technologies\u2019 research study which shows that \u2014 contrary to popular opinion \u2014 most malicious web sites are hosted on US servers and not in other countries like China.<\/p>\n The AVG research study is based on the analysis of threats reported during the last 6 months from AVG\u2019s 110 million worldwide users of its AVG LinkScanner\u00ae web security product. The research indicates an increase in malware-serving web sites targeting end users, which typically focus on stealing online banking credentials, credit card information, personal identities and passwords to social sites.<\/p>\n The detection and analysis of exploits was based on AVG\u2019s unique crowd-sourced methods for analysing web content for malicious or dangerous intent as reported by AVG\u2019s vast network of LinkScanner installations worldwide. AVG\u2019s research shows that malicious code is not just an issue with outlaw servers located in countries with weak laws and lax enforcement. Monitoring active web servers serving exploits around the world indicates that 44 percent of the corrupted servers are hosted in the United States, followed by Germany and China at just 5 percent each. Many of these malware-serving web sites are legitimate sites compromised by hackers to serve exploits on their behalf. In total, exploitive servers were found in nearly 4,600 locations throughout the USA.<\/p>\n It is important to note that this research makes no statement about who owns or is directing the efforts of these servers \u2014 for those criminals and\/or criminal networks could be anywhere in the world \u2014 and they are.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results of this study shatter the myth that malicious code is primarily hosted in countries where e-crime laws are less developed,\u201d said Karel Obluk, Chief Technology Officer, AVG Technologies. \u201cOur 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. This makes perfect sense since the USA 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. What is most striking is the clear rise in the number of malicious servers in the last six months. Today\u2019s hacking techniques are highly evasive so the average user cannot tell if a website is serving malware or not. A web security product is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Obluk continued, \u201cEven more important to note is that, on average during this six month period, about 50 percent of the domains hosted on these servers were online and hosting threats only one day or less. This transient nature makes them very hard to find and add to traditional reputation-based protection systems in time to be helpful to users.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a preventative measure, users should look for web security protection when going online,\u201d said Lloyd Borrett, Marketing Manager, AVG (AU\/NZ). “Today’s bad guys are smarter and create threats that are more sophisticated, hiding in legitimate web sites that are sometimes poisoned for less than a day. This makes a real-time solution like AVG LinkScanner absolutely critical to protect against web based threats.”<\/p>\n AVG LinkScanner is free and is included as a part of all AVG Anti-Virus and Internet Security products. AVG LinkScanner can be used also as a free stand-alone product delivering extra protection alongside other brands of antivirus and Internet security software. AVG LinkScanner, or AVG’s other free security products, can be downloaded at: www.avgfree.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n About AVG Technologies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n www.avg.com<\/a><\/p>\n AVG is a global security software maker 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. AVG has nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime and one of the most advanced laboratories for detecting, pre-empting and combating Web-borne threats from around the world. Its free, downloadable software allows novice users to have basic anti-virus protection and then easily upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense when they are ready. AVG has nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!<\/p>\n