"Porn sites contain malware" says report

[Redder Lurtz]

In other news, wheels are round and pointed sticks can be quite sharp.

 

BBC News - Top porn sites 'pose growing malware risk' to users

 

Browsing some of the internet's most popular pornography websites is increasingly putting visitors at risk, research has found.

 

Advertisements displayed by the sites, which are visited by millions every day, were found to be installing harmful files without users' knowledge.

 

Researcher Conrad Longmore found that two popular sites - xhamster.com and pornhub.com - posed the greatest risk.

 

He said it should be easier for users to report malicious advertising.

 

He said it was primarily Windows users at risk, but that criminals were increasingly turning their attentions to mobile devices.

 

While none of the porn sites observed hosted any malware themselves, it was the embedded advertisements within their pages that created problems for users.

 

"We call these malicious advertisements 'malvertising'," explained Mr Longmore.

 

"The way the ads are bought and sold across all websites is incredibly complex.

 

"Ads can often be repackaged and resold so that it is hard to tell where they originated from, and the criminals behind them go to great lengths to disguise what they are doing."

'Sudden spike'

 

Mr Longmore compiled his figures using Google's diagnostic advice service, which regularly analyses websites for harmful content.

 

The data showed that xhamster.com - listed by monitoring firm Alexa as the 46th most popular site on the internet - had malvertising on 1,067 out of 20,986 pages (5%) screened in the past 90 days.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

 

Part of the problem is that porn is a taboo subject”

 

Conrad Longmore Security researcher

 

According to Alexa's statistics, the average user of xhamster.com would look at 10.3 individual pages - meaning a potential 42% risk of stumbling across harmful adverts in each viewing session.

 

Another site, pornhub.com, was found to have dangerous advertising on 12.7% of its pages.

 

Mr Longmore said: "There seems to have been a sudden spike in malware on popular sites, especially in the past week or so. "

 

However, the web's most popular porn site, xvideos.com, was not found to have any harmful adverts in the time sampled by Google's system - a sign the site had "cleaned up".

Reporting mechanism

 

Mr Longmore believes a culture of users being afraid to "kick up a fuss" means many instances of malvertising go unreported.

 

"Part of the problem is that porn is a taboo subject," he said.

 

"But the reality is that these are hugely popular sites with many of them in the top 100 most popular sites globally. Some of them pull in more traffic than the BBC, so this is potentially a very big issue.

 

"Site operators could put a quick reporting mechanism on their sites to flag up bad ads and other concerns, and ad networks should also take some responsibility here.

 

"I don't see that happening any time soon, and perhaps the best thing that users of these sites can do is ensure that their machines are up to date."

 

The BBC has approached the owners of xhamster.com and pornhub.com but has yet to receive any comment.

[Pony Princess]

"Hot slutz in Warrigton (sic) want to fuck you, NOW! CLICK HERE!"

[Captain]

Block ads. They are both intrusive and harmful.

[VladimirIlyich]

They obviously havent heard of adblock plus, malwarebytes,do not track me, flashblock or the many anti virus programs then.

[Saintslfc13]

anyone who didn't already know this has failed at the interweb

[Redder Lurtz]

anyone who didn't already know this has failed at the interweb

 

Not only that but failed at pornography too.

[Red Banjo]

I will look into this

[VladimirIlyich]

I will look into this

 

Great advice.

 

You cant beat a bit of research into the subject at hand. (Wahey.)

[Lightforce]

I^ve VISit3d t@;hose sites & n)t hard @ny prob!ems.

[Paco]

I noticed yesterday that after I was on some streaming sites with flat out pop ups I kept getting a message on my phone saying that someone had failed to sign in to my hotmail.

 

got this same message on my phone several times.

 

would that be from those pop ups?

 

paranoid now about applying for a new credit card on my lap top.

[rondeco]

I got that poice ransomware on my laptop earlier in the week. Cunt of a thing to get rid of

[Captain]

I got that poice ransomware on my laptop earlier in the week. Cunt of a thing to get rid of

 

Yep. I had a colleague of mine show up in my office with his laptop. He put all the cards on the table - well ashamed!

 

He was quite happy when he left 15 mins later with a healthy laptop.

[General Dryness]

"Hot slutz in Warrigton (sic) want to fuck you, NOW! CLICK HERE!"

 

Oh fuck, have they moved? They're always in Napier when I go online.

 

BTW, I couldn't give a fuck if porn sites contain shithouse dog aids, I ain't givin' it up.

[Paulie Dangerously]

An ex housemate of mine had scareware which changed his background to say 'the things on this computer could RUIN YOUR LIFE you NEED THIS PRODUCT. Enter your card details or you WILL GO TO JAIL' and other threats. Like a full background worth of text it was ace

 

He swore blind it wasn't porn though.

[rondeco]

Yep. I had a colleague of mine show up in my office with his laptop. He put all the cards on the table - well ashamed!

 

He was quite happy when he left 15 mins later with a healthy laptop.

 

Why do people get ashamed that they look at porn? 99% of people with internet access do it I reckon.

[Captain]

Why do people get ashamed that they look at porn? 99% of people with internet access do it I reckon.

 

Most people have a wank too. You just don't want to get caught.

[Redder Lurtz]

I got that poice ransomware on my laptop earlier in the week. Cunt of a thing to get rid of

 

Is that the one that turns your webcam on and opens a little window with your horrified face in it with a load of flashing warnings telling you your ISP have logged your activity and that you need to pay a fine to remove the malware, resulting in having to reboot in networked safe mode and run malwarebytes on to get rid of?

 

Nah, dunno what you're on about officer.

[Adebisi]

My laptop is goosed so I do all my browsing and wanking with my old iPod touch. The cons are obvious, but the filth I have on this thing is great.

 

Me and the girlfriend have enjoyed it together too. Watching filth and creating our own. It's a great device. I got mine from the Internet but I hear you can get them everywhere.

[VladimirIlyich]

My laptop is goosed so I do all my browsing and wanking with my old iPod touch. The cons are obvious' date=' but the filth I have on this thing is great.

 

Me and the girlfriend have enjoyed it together too. Watching filth and creating our own. It's a great device. I got mine from the Internet but I hear you can get them everywhere.[/quote']

 

Pics or GTFO.

 

Of your GF obviously.

[Pony Princess]

I was speaking to one of the directors of the place I am working at the moment and he was saying the problem with porn is not whether it is legal or not but that it would be hugely embarrassing getting your computers seized for six months because you had something on there that might be considered 'edgy' in Amsterdam.

 

Redirected him to this little badboy TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

 

Stick all your porn on there and stop worrying.