Legit Web Sites Heavily Compromised

That nice business Web site you put up may be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Instead of putting up their own Web sites, malicious hackers are now focusing their efforts on corrupting legitimate sites. A survey released today, and conducted between January and June by messaging- and data-protection firm Websense, found that hackers compromised 50 percent more legitimate Web sites during this period than between July and December 2007.

According to the Websense study, more than 75 percent of Web sites containing malicious code are legitimate sites that have been infected. The survey found that 60 of the 100 most popular Web sites either hosted, or were involved in, malicious activity between January and June 2008.

These sites are overwhelmingly social networking or search sites, such as search engines. They let users upload third-party applications, and many malware writers take advantage of this.

The hackers aren't launching attacks for fun – Web site hacking has become a business where the profit motive rules. When the business is no longer profitable, it's closed down, just as in the real world.

Sites include companies like:

Walmart.com | Facebook.com | Salesforce.com | MySpace.com

Sklar Response:

This type of security threat is a real issue since most businesses only have basic firewall services to protect them. The firewall can't detect when a legitimate site is compromised nor can it detect any malicious information that is accessed via internet browers like Internet Explorer. Filtering content is a critical layer in securing data and systems. See our internet security services or contact us to learn more about this critical issue.