McAfee Releases Report on Most Dangerous Top-Level Domains

gonzo · 06-05-2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. — China, Hong Kong and sometimes even simple information are dangerous — on the Internet, at least.

Antivirus software company McAfee Inc. released a report highlighting the danger of three top-level domains: dot-hk (Hong Kong), dot-cn (China) and dot-info.

The danger levels breaks down like this:
• Of all dot-hk sites, McAfee flagged 19.2 percent of them as dangerous or potentially dangerous.
• Of all dot-cn sites, 11.8 percent raised red flags.
• Of all dot-info sites, 11.7 percent raised red flags.

Five percent of the world’s most popular top-level domain — dot-com — were marked as dangerous or potentially dangerous.

The least risky top-level domains were dot-gov, dot-jp (Japan) and dot-au (Australia).

McAfee blamed the large number of dangerous websites on lax domain-registry requirements for the three most dangerous top-level domains.
Online guru Brandon Shalton agreed, though he noted that the sheer cheapness of these domains makes them attractive to spammers.

“To me, whenever I see a dot-info website, I think the site is just junk,” said Shalton, who founded traffic-analysis service T3Report.com. “And that would mean that dot-info is not what they probably intended when ICANN created it.”

On top of that, Shalton said that one of the most “questionable” domain registries is also the first one: Network Solutions. According Shalton, if a user checks the availability of a domain name at Network Solutions, the company puts a hold on the domain so that the user can't then buy the domain from another registry.

"They call this a service for their customers, but its clearly anticompetitive," he said. The service eventually drew a class-action lawsuit against Network Solutions.

So how is a webmaster to stay safe online? Shalton suggested staying at the top of the top-level domains: dot-com. He also added that despite the efforts of Internet officials to encourage uniform usage of top-level domains — dot-com for commercial entities or dot-org for organizations, for example — only dot-edu and dot-gov retained their integrity.
"Dot-com is where it is at," he said. "All these other top-level domains are just ways to make more money for registries."

http://www.xbiz.com/news/94803

RawAlex · 06-05-2008

Interestingly, you can get super cheap .info domains right now on my register thingie http://www.register888.com - go figure!

06-05-2008	#1
gonzo Fat Fucking Nobody Want to see your own Advertising Here! Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Atlanta,Ga. Posts: 17,795 Blog Entries: 11	McAfee Releases Report on Most Dangerous Top-Level Domains SAN JOSE, Calif. — China, Hong Kong and sometimes even simple information are dangerous — on the Internet, at least. Antivirus software company McAfee Inc. released a report highlighting the danger of three top-level domains: dot-hk (Hong Kong), dot-cn (China) and dot-info. The danger levels breaks down like this: • Of all dot-hk sites, McAfee flagged 19.2 percent of them as dangerous or potentially dangerous. • Of all dot-cn sites, 11.8 percent raised red flags. • Of all dot-info sites, 11.7 percent raised red flags. Five percent of the world’s most popular top-level domain — dot-com — were marked as dangerous or potentially dangerous. The least risky top-level domains were dot-gov, dot-jp (Japan) and dot-au (Australia). McAfee blamed the large number of dangerous websites on lax domain-registry requirements for the three most dangerous top-level domains. Online guru Brandon Shalton agreed, though he noted that the sheer cheapness of these domains makes them attractive to spammers. “To me, whenever I see a dot-info website, I think the site is just junk,” said Shalton, who founded traffic-analysis service T3Report.com. “And that would mean that dot-info is not what they probably intended when ICANN created it.” On top of that, Shalton said that one of the most “questionable” domain registries is also the first one: Network Solutions. According Shalton, if a user checks the availability of a domain name at Network Solutions, the company puts a hold on the domain so that the user can't then buy the domain from another registry. "They call this a service for their customers, but its clearly anticompetitive," he said. The service eventually drew a class-action lawsuit against Network Solutions. So how is a webmaster to stay safe online? Shalton suggested staying at the top of the top-level domains: dot-com. He also added that despite the efforts of Internet officials to encourage uniform usage of top-level domains — dot-com for commercial entities or dot-org for organizations, for example — only dot-edu and dot-gov retained their integrity. "Dot-com is where it is at," he said. "All these other top-level domains are just ways to make more money for registries." http://www.xbiz.com/news/94803 __________________ We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage." "Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson "The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale

06-05-2008	#2
RawAlex Members $100 for every ImLive sign-up Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 4,036	Re: McAfee Releases Report on Most Dangerous Top-Level Domains Interestingly, you can get super cheap .info domains right now on my register thingie http://www.register888.com - go figure! __________________ Let's go to the edge of disaster Push the pedal and go a little faster Let's slam into a wall at ramming speed Let's go to the edge of a mountain Jump off and lets start countin' Hit the ground and tell me if it bleeds