Where Does Malicious Code Originate?

Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 Online-Casinos.com

WHERE DOES MOST MALICIOUS CODE ORIGINATE?

No, it's not Russia or even China - it's the good ol' USA and Britain!

Information Week has published an intriguing new report from the Finjan cyber security company warning users that many online threats may not be coming from the seedy underbelly of the Internet but rather from advertising on seemingly harmless and well-known sites. And contrary to conventional wisdom, Russia and China are not the main sources.

Finjan analysed more than 10 million URLs for its quarterly Web Security Trends Report and found that most malicious code - worms, Trojans, and viruses - doesn't come from Russia, China, or any other country that is considered to have substandard cybercrime laws.

Most malware comes straight out of the United States or the United Kingdom, according to Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan.

He also pointed out in an interview with InformationWeek that malicious code isn't just being embedded in porn or other low-class sites. Much of it can be found hiding in advertisements on legitimate web venues.

"Malicious code is everywhere," said Ben-Itzhak. "Even if you avoid sites where you know you should not go, you can still get infected. It really can come from anywhere."

As commercial interests continue to drive e-crime, malicious code is more likely to be hosted on local servers in the United States and the United Kingdom, the report said. That means that relying solely on filters that scan for where the code came from is no longer fully effective, Ben-Itzhak said.

"Don't just inspect something coming from a porn site or from Russia," he said. "You've got to inspect everything. If code is going to delete something on my machine, block it, and not just when it's from Russia."

Ben-Itzhak also warned users about clicking on online advertisements - even on legitimate sites. Advertising actually is the leading category for URLs containing malicious code, accounting for 80 percent of all instances. Many Web masters aren't aware of all the ads popping up on their sites, he added, explaining that many aren't embedding specific static ads on their sites but buy into ad services that push ads onto the site.

"That's a main problem," said Ben-Itzhak. "You don't have to be visiting blacklisted or suspicious sites to get into trouble."