By Daryll Nanayakara

EVERY five seconds, a website falls prey to hackers and gets infected with malicious software. This puts visiting
surfers at risk of having their computer systems infected.

That startling figure is from a recently published report by IT security and control firm Sophos.

The half-yearly report, which was released last Thursday, documents the latest trends and figures on Internet security and cyber-crime within the first six months of this year.

According to Sophos, an average of 16,173 malicious webpages are discovered each day, and a whopping "90 per cent of these webpages are legitimate sites which have been hacked".

Surprisingly, these sites are prominent and esteemed ones.

The website of Cambridge University Press was hacked in April, and the website belonging to the Association of Tennis Professionals a month later. According to the report, even government agencies are not spared.

Such seemingly innocent and reputable sites are the target choice for hackers due to the large number of hits they receive.

The infection rate of websites is three times faster this year than last year. As compared to five every second this year, the average frequency of infected webpages was one every 14 seconds last year, the Sophos report said.

When infected with malicious software, the websites become a springboard for various viruses.

Another type of website typically victimised by hackers are those that do not require proper identification and can easily be set up, such as blog hosts.

Going by the Sophos report, Blogger (www.blogspot.com) was the "primary host of malicious code worldwide" last month.

And webpages are not the only tools employed by hackers to spread viruses and spam. The use of e-mail has taken on a darker spin - hackers now send e-mail messages containing links to affected URLs, along with sensational headlines that tempt users to open the e-mail message.

Some headlines, for example, claim that e-mail messages contain nude photographs of Hollywood starlets Nicole Kidman and Angelina Jolie.

According to Sophos, the best way to guard against spam e-mail and to prevent your computer from getting infected by viruses is to be vigilant, especially if you are using your company's computer.

Mr Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, explained: "Visiting an infected website from your work PC or sharing too much personal information or corporate information on sites like Facebook could lead to you being the criminal's route into your company."

darylldj@sph.com.sg

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