This probably should not come as much of a surprise to many people. With the increasing simplicity it is taking to develop malware in according with the low-cost of domain names (i.e. ‘.info), it makes sense that malware is running rampant on the web. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any sign of it dying down either. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact of malware-development tools that are openly available. With their increasingly complex algorithms and functionality, people with absolutely zero coding or hacking experience can develope a lethal piece of malware within minutes. Let’s just hope the security companies of the world will be able to mitigate the risks that come from these complex tools.

According to Google research, hundreds of thousands of Web sites are infected with malicious software that could give attackers the ability to steal the personal identities of visitors.

The research, titled “The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of Web-Based Malware,” reported that an adversary who can successfully compromise a victim’s browser can gain access to banking and medical records, authorization passwords, and personal communication records.

Google said that in its analysis of several billion URLs and an in-depth look at 4.5 million Web sites over a 12-month period, it discovered 450,000 sites were successfully launching drive-by-downloads of malware code.[more]

Tags: Malware