Free Web Hosts And Malware - Is there a Connection? | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials

Free Web Hosts And Malware - Is there a Connection?

Web hosting is a wonderful service that allows individuals and businesses to create their own websites on the internet. Some have used their leased server space to create personal sites for the viewing of friends and family while others create e-commerce sites with the hopes of flourishing at internet marketing. Unfortunately, there are also a few unscrupulous individuals creating websites with harmful intent, attempting to lure unsuspecting visitors and distribute malicious code.

The Target

Companies providing web hosting service are being exploited at an alarming rate. Hackers and other criminal minded individuals have found this platform as an affordable way to anonymously store and disseminate MMC (mobile malicious code) to their visitors. While malware comes in many different variations, the most common types include self replicating viruses and keystroke logging spyware designed to thieve sensitive information.

Malware has been a problem on the web for some time, but experts first took notice of this particular trend in 2005. In the beginning of that year, Websense Security Labs discovered a shocking number of incidents where free web hosts were used to create sites with the sole purpose of distributing keystroke logging programs and Trojan horse downloaders along with several other types of malware. This trend would later move on to blogging platforms and eventually any form of free web hosting available. Some of the sites recently uncovered for MMC activity include those designed for hosting photo galleries, online journals, music, celebrity fan pages, greeting cards and many others.

Three years later, the creation of these malicious websites remains steady and unsettling. Just like web developers and software creators, hackers and malware writers are a part of large communities where they shared ideas and concoct malicious plans. Many of them share cracking software and a number of other tools that are freely available online. Others create websites that appear legitimate to lure unsuspecting individuals into phishing schemes were they stand to make a lot of money. A site hosting MMC may allow you to perform normal activities such as page and file viewing all while infecting your computer with spyware.

According to security experts, these websites created on free hosting servers have a short life span, generally only to two four days, making the perpetrators rather difficult to trace. Malicious coders have been able to achieve their goals by using social engineering techniques to entice users into clicking on links or images and downloading harmful programs onto their computers. Some of these sites are so hostile, that a quick visit is all it takes to catch a deadly infection.

Intervention

Due to the recent outbreak, free web hosting providers have tried to put an end to the abuse by limiting the number of accounts a user is allowed to host and implementing captcha features into the registration process to prevent the interaction of robot networks. While this is an improvement, many experts argue that it simply isn’t enough. Consultants from Websense believe that as long as companies continue to provide free services with little to no security, spyware and Trojan horses will continue to contribute to the huge MMC issue currently plaguing the internet.

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