Safe haven for hackers

NEW DELHI: Websense, Inc., an employee Internet management solutions provider, today announced that hackers are increasingly exploiting free personal web hosting sites.

Such web-hosting sites facilitate affordable and anonymous ways to store and disseminate mobile malicious code (MMC) and dangerous types of spyware, the company said in a press release.

In the first two weeks of July 2005 alone, Websense Security Labs has discovered more than 500 incidents of free web hosting sites that were created to spread keyloggers, Trojan horse downloaders, Trojan horse droppers, and other harmful spyware and malware.

Earlier this year, Websense reported that free blogging accounts were being used to harbor malcode. This trend is now expanding to any form of free web hosting site.

“The growth of this trend is alarming. July has seen a major boom - in the first two weeks alone we found more instances than in May and June combined,” said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and technology research for Websense.

“Some of the sites may be created with automated shared hacking software and free online tools, while others are built to appear more legitimate. For example, one of the sites found by the Labs included music that accompanied a greeting-card message which runs while your computer is being infected with spyware.”

These fraudulent, free personal websites have an average lifespan of two to four days, making them difficult to trace. In addition, a majority of the new sites discovered by Websense have been hosted in Brazil or the United Kingdom and contain text written in Portuguese and English.