Boston (MA) – Sophos is describing a scary scenario of the state of the Internet today. In its most recent security threat report released today, the company says that malware is waiting for web surfers in almost every third webpage and, even worse, less than 20% pf web pages publish “constructive” content these days.

If you are worried about inexperienced users in your family or corporation accessing the Internet, then Sophos is delivering new reasons why there indeed should be some concern. According to the firm’s findings, more than 80.5% of the pages of a 1 million page sample that was blocked by Sophos' web security appliance are hosting questionable content in one way or the other.

The security firm said that 28.8% pages try to sneak malware onto PCs of unsuspecting users, 19.4% deal with spam, 4.3% host illegal content such pirated software and 28% publish pornographic content.

That leaves 19.5% for “constructive” content, we were told by Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst at Sophos. Interestingly, of those 28.8% of pages hosting malware, Sophos estimates that about 80% of those pages do not know that they were hi-jacked and are distributing malware as a result. This scenario suggests that web design will have to evolve and publishing a website will get more difficult for more and more people and require developers to spend for time on preventing malware from entering their property. Sophos claims that it is discovering 29,000 new webpages hosting malware each day.

“On some instances,” O’Brien said, “the risks of the Internet already the benefits.” He noted that security issues on the web have become serious enough to have the potential to evolve into an “instability threat to the Internet”.

On a positive note, that of course means that, in absolute numbers, that there are an estimated 2 billion pages of pages out there you do not have to worry about.

Sophos also noted that Apache web servers are just as vulnerable to web attacks than Microsoft servers. While there was a major malware outbreak in June that almost excusively hit Apache servers, the company estimates that half of the attacks hit Apache and the other half Microsoft IIS.  

For users, these findings obviously suggest that anti-malware software is becoming more important. However, O’Brien also said that it is important for users to “treat the Internet with caution and respect”. Education remains the biggest challenge in this environment with “very young” and “very old” being the least experienced groups on the Internet and therefore the most vulnerable ones.

Not surprising

Jul 25, 2007 13:32     

I wonder how many of these pages are official government/corporate sites?
LORD ORION report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Somebody gets paid for this..?

Jul 25, 2007 15:23     

How is any of this news? A simple web search will prove that at least 80% of the internet is crap and that last 20% is debatable too.
Mo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

considering most of the world relys on money :)

Jul 25, 2007 23:32     

considering most of the world relys on money, im not suprised that porn, spam and malware take presedence over "constructive" sites like the practically ad free wikipedia and such... tis sad indeed that profit motive has to crowd out more positive aspects of the information age
Joe Schmo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

spellcheck helps

Jul 26, 2007 09:31     

Also knowing English does too. Seriously though, I had my apache server on my old host get highjacked and it was trying to install a trojan anytime my website was accessed. I had nothing to do with it, and the people running the server took months to try to fix it and couldn't. Eventually I switched hosts though that was not the only reason.
Niva report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Numbers don't add up.

Jul 26, 2007 09:52     

"Sophos also noted that Apache web servers are just as vulnerable to web attacks than Microsoft servers... ...the company estimates that half of the attacks hit Apache and the other half Microsoft IIS." From what I can tell 9 out of 10 web servers use Apache, a bit less than 1 in 10 use IIS, and a very small percentage use other stuff. If both servers were equally vulnerable, 9 out of 10 attacks would be on Apache.

RalfTheDog report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Is this new?

Jul 26, 2007 12:10     

Hasn't surfing the web always involved an awful lot of seperating the wheat from the chaff? I also question the characterization of pr0n as not "constructive". :P
Ben report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Is porn bad?

Jul 26, 2007 14:56     

I mean, come on, 28% is pornographic, well, but its ok. Thats how it meant to be. It's pictures, movies etc for adults.
hmm report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Misleading

Sep 17, 2007 16:26     

Sophos tells us that, from a random sample of 1 million pages THAT ITS APPLIANCE BLOCKS, 80.5% contain questionable content. What kind of crap is that? That's like my antivirus software claiming that 80.5% of the emails it blocks from my computer actually contain viruses. I'd expect 100% of the pages blocked by Sophos's security appliance to contain malicious code, porn, spam, or illegal content. I have to wonder why are the remaining 19.5% of pages in their 1 million page sample (of blocked content) is being blocked by them? 28.8% of web pages host malware... yeah right. That's not what the statement by Sophos is claiming. They're claiming that 29% of sample pages THAT THEIR APPLIANCE BLOCKS contain malware. Big difference.

MoreBeer report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0