Comments on: McAfee: Beware the .hk domain, among others

Security company's new report ranks riskiest and safest domains on the Internet. Damage from risky sites runs from the "apocalyptic to the annoying."

I'm from Hong Kong and I can't final any reference on the original report referring to (.hk), but the report do stated that the (.tk) is one of the highest... I wonder is it a typo...

Oh just downloaded the latest report on PDF... and .hk was one of the highest... that is alarming since I believe you need an business license (BR) to apply for .hk...

I no longer visit boxofficemojo.com because the last time I did, my computer was attacked by a trojan.

[mminasi]

Forgive me, but PLEASE, can we put the hype filter on? On a standard XP SP2 / Vista system, there is no way that this:

"...other sites where you just touch the site and you have downloaded software that turns the machine into a bot in a bot army that sends spam..."

Can happen. Assuming you've got a properly patched system then you've got to OK an ActiveX control's install. This is irresponsible journalism -- people should be WARY on the 'Net, but not frightened to surf at all.

[tugolith]

I beg to differ. I have XP SP3 with all the latest patches. I visited demonoid.com and when one of the advertising loaded on the side of the screen a DOS window quickly opened and closed and my Symantec and Spyware Doctor went crazy. Trojans and spyware was loaded to my system. I never had the chance to click on anything on the site. I have changed my web browser to Mozilla in response. There are to many holes in Internet Explorer.

[Lerianis]

What version of Internet Explorer were you running, Tugolith? mminasi is right, on a properly patched XPSP2 or SP3 system, as well as on Vista, there is no way that this stuff can happen on it's own.
Now, if you are still running IE6, which NO ONE SHOULD BE RUNNING IT NOW.... then, yeah, this kind of stuff is going to work.

[i_made_this]

mminasi, you are correct with your technology statements. However, you are incorrect with your journalism comment. C|NET did NOT make the statement which you quote as an example of irresponsble journalism. The security company McAfee made the statement which you quote as an example of irresponsible journalism. Your anger should be with McAfee, not with C|NET. C|NET was doing their job and quoting McAfee. Personally, I would never use any McAfee security software on my systems because I believe that it is of poor quality compared to many high quality security firms.

[compudoc318]

Tugolith is right, even with updates and antivirus, you can still get infected by just viewing a site, trust me, i own a computer repair company specializing in virus removal and i see machines infected like this daily!

I don't care how up to date your computer's OS and virus software are or how high your privacy settings are on your firewall and browser, there is adware out there that can circumvent ALL of it and take control of your computer. And yes, they can bypass your ActiveX permissions, too. The lesson is not to junk it all and give up on surfing the internet, the lesson is to acknowledge the risk and be vigilant. Above all, keep important files backed up just in case!

[Collin1000]

Anyone other than me notice that .info is the highest on the list? O_O

[Lerianis]

Yeah, I noticed. Funny that, because I go to a lot of .info sites and haven't seen any viruses or spyware, or even gotten an alert from my firewall software and anti-virus.

[benjaminstraight]

Good heads up.