{"id":78572,"date":"2015-11-20T22:53:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T03:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-11T17:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T21:19:01","slug":"shadiest-neighborhoods-on-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/shadiest-neighborhoods-on-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadiest Neighborhoods on the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Internet is organized into domains. Readers of Bach Seat<\/a> are familiar with the .net domain since you got here. You are also probably familiar with other web neighborhoods like .com where Facebook<\/a> and Google<\/a> live. The folks in charge of the Intertubes<\/a> have added more neighborhoods or technically Top Level Domains<\/a> (TLD), and now we have over 1,000 TLDs, many of which have only been around for the past two years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This rapid growth raises questions about how well those in charge of these new TLD’s secure their neighborhood against malware and other threats. CSO Online<\/a><\/em> explains<\/a> that just like any city, the Web has neighborhoods where dubious activities often take place: spam<\/a>, scams<\/a>, the distribution of potentially unwanted software<\/a> (PUS), malware<\/a>, botnets<\/a>, phishing<\/a>, and other suspicious activity.<\/p>\n

Web security and WAN optimization<\/span> firm Blue Coat Systems<\/a> (BCSI<\/a>) regularly analyzes hundreds of millions of Web requests from more than 15,000 businesses and 75 million users to track “shady activity” on the Web. In September, it released Do Not Enter: Blue Coat Research Maps the Web\u2019s Shadiest Neighborhoods<\/em><\/a> (PDF), with a list of the 10 top-level domains (TLDs) on the Web that are home to shady sites.<\/p>\n

\"Blocking<\/a>Blue Coat recommends that organizations take steps to protect themselves, including blocking traffic to the riskiest TLDs and cautioning users to be careful clicking on any links that contain these TLDs. It further suggests that users who are unsure of a source hover their mouse over a link to help verify that it leads to the address displayed in the text of the link, or “press and hold” links on a mobile device to do the same verification<\/p>\n

Blue Coat’s list of TLDs<\/a> most associated with shady sites is constantly in flux but here is their September list.<\/p>\n