10% Of Web Pages Are Malicious
Nowadays, most of us surf the Web in a fairly relaxed manner. We’ve achieved a level of knowledge were most of us feel confident in our ability to spot genuine, safe websites, and those that may be a risk.
Google have announced that one in 10 web pages contain malicious code that could infect a user’s PC.
“Researchers from the firm surveyed billions of sites, subjecting 4.5 million pages to “in-depth analysis”.
About 450,000 were capable of launching so-called “drive-by downloads”, sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user’s knowledge.
A further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user’s computer, the team report.
To address the problem, the researchers say the company has “started an effort to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious”.
When I was reading this, all I could think about is the need for more frequent updates of our software, especially our browsers. This is why most of us are beginning to realise the power of well managed Open-Source programs, like Firefox.
In fact, the report goes on to say,
“The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.”
This is a blow for Microsoft, but many of us have been aware of it for quite some time.
[Source: BBC report]
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IE sucks. Firefox rules!