14 DAY TRIAL // Security experts came across a large number of websites infected with Trojans, exploit kits and other malicious elements that redirect users to well-known malware distribution points.
Avast Virus Lab identified 60 different websites in the past 30 days, all of them being heavily infected. This is especially dangerous since most of the sites are designed for children who are more likely to click on anything that pops up on the screen.
A child’s online behavior increases the chances for a piece of malware to end up on the machine, potentially endangering all the sensitive information that’s stored on it.
“Games like these require clicking and children don’t think much about what they are clicking on. This makes them – or their parents’ computer – quite susceptible to malware.” said Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of Avast Software.
“If there is something dangerous, a child will find it. But, moving between sites is normal behavior for most people – regardless of age.”
One of the more popular websites identified as being harmful is cutearcade.com, a collection of colorful games that mainly addresses youths. This particular site has been reported 12,600 times as being infected by customers who rely on Avast products to secure their devices.
The Trojan it hosts redirects visitors to linuxstabs.com, a domain known for distributing all sorts of malware.
Another popular site that’s been found to be plagued is hiddenninjagames.com. The Flash game collection contains an exploit kit that redirects users to a shady domain.
So how can we make sure that these sort of infected websites don’t affect our computers if we visit them?
Vlcek believes that a good antivirus solution that scans websites for various malware types and the use of virtualization features should mitigate the threat. Sandboxed virtual computers are recommended in this case for enhanced security.