
Dangerous websites | Malware infected sites
One in ten websites contains malicious code that could have a really unpleasant effect on the way your data works.
This striking finding comes from a recent Google study dedicated to identifying the main threats that users face when browsing the web. This study’ s title is “The Ghost in the Browser.”
In their research, Google’s team found that 450,000 of the 4.5 million websites they examined use “drive-by downloads” to install malware on people’s computers without them knowing. The risk to users is even higher, as the investigation found that around 700,000 additional websites contain other forms of code that could cause equally significant problems for computers.
The use of drive-by downloads is becoming a major problem for the world wide web and anyone surfing the internet. They are becoming famous among hackers and can have devastating effects on your computer’s security. This includes gaining remote access, stealing personal data and controlling individual computers. In most cases, these are ‘booby-trap’ websites. Most frequently, these websites contain virus or malware code. Visiting them will cause an infection to install on your computer.
Means of intrusion
Hackers use advertising networks and other tricks to trap potential victims with clever tricks, including links to adult websites or music, movies and TV programmes. The majority of the time, malicious code loades onto your system without you even knowing. Thish happens usually through a vulnerability in Internet Explorer by Microsoft.
The perpetrators set up traps on websites. In most cases, they use parts of the site not monitored by network administrators. Websites often contain different sections. For example, things like advertising banners, as well as small programs for individual functions, are examples of “widgets”. Other popular parts of websites such as forums and blogs are also vulnerable to being caught in a ‘trap’.
Given the research, it’s not impossible that a computer may have 50 different forms of malware if they visit one site. There are some unfortunate consequences to using Keyloggers. Brave example is your computer becoming a part of a larger botnet. That could happen without you even knowing and having your personal data compromised.
Google’s warnings
Google has already started displaying the label “this site may be harmful to your computer” in the index of its popular search page to warn users. The process of detecting dangerous content on the Internet is difficult and requires in-depth knowledge of the ‘net. Subsequently, the company has taken on another big project. The goal is to systematically catalogue all the sites that are similar to this one in terms of risks for users.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology