San Jose (California): When surfing the internet for safe websites, not all domains are equal. Companies that assign addresses for websites appear to be cutting corners on security more when they assign names in certain domains than in others, according to a report to be released on Wednesday by antivirus software vendor McAfee Inc.
McAfee found the most dangerous domains to navigate to are “.hk” (Hong Kong), “.cn” (China) and “.info” (information). Of all “.hk” sites McAfee tested, it flagged 19.2% as dangerous or potentially dangerous to visitors; it flagged 11.8% of “.cn” sites and 11.7% of “.info” sites that way. A little more than 5% of the sites under the “.com” domain — the world’s most popular — were identified as dangerous.
More spammers, malicious code writers and other cybercriminals can establish an online presence when domain name registry businesses cut requirements for registering a site in order to boost their profit and profile. The report doesn't identify domain name registration companies McAfee believes are responsible for those lapses.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of companies are in the business of registering domain names; some are large and well known, while others are small and less reputable, offering their services on the cheap and with flimsy or no background checks to lure in more customers.
The fact that internet scam artists gravitate to domain name services with lower fees and fewer requirements isn’t new. What McAfee’s ‘Mapping the Mal Web’ report, now in its second year, tries to do is identify the domains that are populated with the highest concentration of risky sites. The servers for “.hk” and “.cn” websites don’t have to be in China; website operators can register sites from anywhere to target different geographies
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