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Cyber crooks use legitimate websites to infect users

Cyber crooks are increasingly spreading their attacks to legitimate sites in a bid to expose unwary internet users to online threats, a security company has said.

ScanSafe has published a report which shows that 65 per cent of malware blocked in October resulted from internet users visiting compromised websites, 13 per cent of which were from backdoors and password stealers.

Commenting on its latest Global Threat Report, Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe said internet users "can no longer associate malware with inappropriate sites" alone.

"The ongoing compromises of known legitimate websites aren't measured in the hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands, but rather can be counted in the millions," she said.

"Once compromised, these sites become virtual conveyor belts of malware, attacking each web surfer that visits."

Search engine results containing malware also increased to 9.3 per cent, noted the report.

Malware can be used to download viruses and programmes that can steal personal data leading to ID theft.

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