China hosts nearly half of all malware sites
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Nearly 45 percent of the world's infected sites originate in China, with the U.S. and Russia a distant second and third, according to Sophos.
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(InfoWorld) - Web sites running Microsoft's Web server software are twice as likely to be hosting malicious code as other Web sites, according to research from Google. Last month, Google's Anti-Malware team looked at 70,000 domains that were either distributing malware or hosting attack code and made the finding. "Compared to our sample of servers across the Internet, Microsoft IIS features twice as often as a malware-distributing server," wrote Google's Nagendra Modadugu, in a Tuesday blog posting. Together, IIS (Internet Information Services) and Apache servers host about 89 percent of all Web sites, but collectively, they're responsible for 98 percent of all Web-based malware. Google actually found an equal number of Apache and IIS Web sites hosting malicious software, but because there are so many more sites hosted by Apache servers (66 percent versus Microsoft's 23 percent) malicious sites make up a much larger percentage of all IIS servers. Modadugu didn't draw any conclusions about whether this means that Microsoft servers are more likely to be hacked. "It is important to note that while many servers serve malware as a result of a server compromise ... some servers are configured to serve up exploits by their administrators," Modadugu wrote. Google also found that the malware server of choice varied from region to region. In China and South Korea, for example, the majority of malicious Web sites are running IIS. In the U.S., Russia, and Germany, however, Apache is the predominant malware server. Modadugu speculated that the servers in China and South Korea may be running pirated software and thus unable to get Microsoft's latest security updates. According to one security researcher, the fact that IIS is so easy to use may account for Google's findings. It's easier to operate an ISS Web server than an Apache Web server, said Cesar Cerrudo, CEO of security research firm Argeniss. "People who are not too skilled will install Windows and set up a Web server with weak configuration." But Cerrudo said that more information would be required to draw any solid conclusions about the security of IIS. "The report says that 70,000 domains were examined, but what about if 5,000 domains are in the same Web server in China?" he asked. "It's pretty easy playing with numbers and concluding. A lot of more data is needed to get the right conclusions." Microsoft and Apache did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
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Infected computers can be used as &quot;zombies&quot; to send spam or launch attacks on Web sites. Spreading Trojans via chat rooms is not unusual.
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Search giant purges thousands of malicious sites from its search results. Security researchers say more may be on the way.
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Nearly 60 percent of computer networks in Chinese offices, including those in the national defence department and the government, have been hit by Internet viruses or attacks, reported state media.
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Chinese Wikipedia users say the Web site highlights the resilience of an information control system whose reach goes beyond simple censorship.
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According to reports from a government Internet watchdog, China has shut down about 1,287 websites that cater to harmful content - pornography, religious cults, gambling and superstition.
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Fujacks stole gamers' IDs China has jailed four men convicted of involvement in a malware-fuelled scam that led to the infection of hundreds of thousands of Windows PCs across the country.â¦
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The level of state-led censorship of the net is growing around the world, according to a survey.
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China has been the target of a big  increase in cyber-attacks in recent years and faces more of a  threat from hackers than any country in the West, a military  researcher said on Saturday.
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According to the Internet Society of China (ISC), 1129 pornographic web sites have been closed by the Ministry of Public Security since July, when the crackdown began.
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China is cracking down on music sites. Really.
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The survey says 67 percent of computers lack current anti-virus software and 20 percent are already infected with virus. The survey also says 80 percent of home computers are infected with spyware/Adware AND
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A small number of zombie networks are responsible for all Internet phishing attacks worldwide, according to CipherTrust, the messaging security appliance firm.
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Report finds that China topped the region in the first half of 2007, producing the most malicious code, spam zombies, bots and attacks.
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Several news stories have noted that China's internet user base increased by more than 70 million in 2007 to a count 213 million at year's end. Little noted is that 23 percent of these users use the internet from mobile devices.
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A quarter of all Net-connected PCs could become infected by Trojans, Vint Cerf tells World Economic Forum attendees.