14 DAY TRIAL // U.S.-based websites are responsible for 42% of the global malware, with viruses, worms, Trojans and a lot of other kinds of threats very likely to infect any computer with an Internet connection. China is the second worst country when it comes to secure Web content, being responsible for about 12% of the global malware.
Germany holds the third position, with 6%, followed by the U.K. with 5% and Russia with 4%. The top five most insecure countries in terms of global malware was put together as a result of the data gathered in a study conducted by ScanSafe, which reported the stats for June 2008.
"We can expect to see an increase in Olympics-themed spam, blog comments, and forum posts that try to entice potential victims into visiting malicious websites under the auspices of viewing video or other content related to the games," Mary Landesman, senior security researcher, ScanSafe, comments. "Potentially, there may also be an increase in the compromise of legitimate websites that feature Olympics-related content, in order to exploit the heightened traffic that may result." The Beijing Olympics-related financial scams are already a common practice, as there have been a lot of cases where people paid for inexistent tickets sold on various websites.
ScanSafe reports that the first half of 2008 was favorable for the development of web-based malware. From January until June, the growth rate of this type of malicious software grew by 278%. Internet users are advised to be vigilant, because websites that are developed to pull scams on people by infecting their computers are not the only ones considered a threat anymore. "More and more legitimate sites are being targeted by attackers and websites where the Olympic Games are streamed online by broadcasters could be a prime area for compromise." warns ScanSafe of the risk people expose to if they are not careful enough.