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The Web is Dangerous, Google Warns (PCWORLD.COM)

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MrMark
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16 Feb 2008, 2:02 pm

The Web is Dangerous, Google Warns

The Web is scarier than most people realize, according to research published recently by Google.

The search engine giant trained its Web crawling software on billions of Web addresses over the past year looking for malicious pages that tried to attack their visitors. They found more than 3 million of them, meaning that about one in 1,000 Web pages is malicious, according to Neils Provos, a senior staff software engineer with Google.

These Web-based attacks, called "drive-by downloads" by security experts, have become much more common in recent years as firewalls and better security practices by Microsoft have made it harder for worms and viruses to directly attack computers.

more...


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viska
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16 Feb 2008, 4:32 pm

Quote:
"We looked into this and indeed we found that if you ended up going to adult-oriented pages, your risk of being exposed [to malicious software] was slightly higher," he said. But "there really wasn't a huge difference."


Wow, that is really interesting. I am having trouble believing this.. but hey, they did a study and I'm just a random joe. :)



lau
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16 Feb 2008, 8:03 pm

viska wrote:
Quote:
"We looked into this and indeed we found that if you ended up going to adult-oriented pages, your risk of being exposed [to malicious software] was slightly higher," he said. But "there really wasn't a huge difference."


Wow, that is really interesting. I am having trouble believing this.. but hey, they did a study and I'm just a random joe. :)

I'll do a study....
One in a thousand websites have a link to SmileyCentral.
QED.


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Tequila
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16 Feb 2008, 9:28 pm

Crossing the road's dangerous too. So is having a shave. What unutterable balderdash these people do talk.



Mudboy
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16 Feb 2008, 11:11 pm

The web can be a dangerous place?!

Really?

If they didn't issue a press release, nobody would ever know. :roll:



sartresue
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17 Feb 2008, 9:57 am

In the Danger Zone topic

I am glad there is another warning. I have teens constantly browsing the internet and I do so myself. If I found a bad site I would report it, and one recent one involved something called "fake"buddy" 8O for people who would like virtual pals--actually a bot that bombards your email server with phoney friend "messages" that unpopular people might think means that they are wanted and needed. The topic is in this forum and is entitled 'virtual friends'? Who knows what kind of malicious crap this web site is offering? Could be porn or phishing for bank account numbers.

Better the devil you know... :twisted:


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