ChannelWeb came out with a list of the 10 most dangerous legitimate websites to date. Part 1 of this list was addressed last month. This month we treat you to sites 6-10:
6. Image Hosting Sites
Image hosting sites such as DropBox and Image Shack are growing in popularity among hackers as a means of spreading Malware. Typically, a hacker will use an image to entice users to click on it, subsequently downloading the malicious software, in a form of social engineering.
7. Banking and Financial Sites
It is obvious why banking and financial sites are popular targets for hackers: they are both popular and loaded with advantageous personal information. Typically such sites are attacked in one of two ways: drive-by downloads where the hacker injected malicious code into the actual webpage or the establishment of a false phishing site resembling the legitimate log-in page. Both types of attack are designed to steal lucrative personal data such as one’s username and password, social security number, credit card number, or bank account number.
8. Gaming Sites
Gaming sites are popular with hackers because often gamers are playing for financial prizes and are therefore obliged to enter personal information to receive the compensation. Hackers have also been known to hijack a player’s site and threaten to delete their profile or change their score to zero if certain monetary demands are not met.
9. Celebrity Sites
Why: because they are so very, very popular. Hackers will often link to malicious software via third-party content on these legitimate celebrity sites. People, addicted to trolling the web for celebrity info, will be prompted to click on these banners to receive even more information on Brad Pitt or Britney Spears.
10. News and Government Sites
Once again, the popularity of such sites makes them prime targets. Typically cybercriminals will exploit site vulnerabilities and will utilize SQL injections to attack unsuspecting users of the site with drive-by downloads.
Conclusion
When browsing the web in the future, be aware of the fact that legitimate sites are now very popular marks for cybercriminals. Surf smart: do not click on anything that appears in the least bit phishy. Also be sure to secure your network end-to-end: from gateway to endpoints. A secure network is a safe network.
References
ChannelWeb, www.crn.com the article is entitled, “When Good Goes Bad: 10 Most Dangerous Web Sites”
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