Downloading digital music more risky than porn?

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By Stevie Smith Jun 4, 2007, 15:02 GMT

Despite the modern myth that the Internet is made up predominantly of pornography Web sites, a great deal of which are supposedly little more than traps-in-waiting, crammed to the rafters with damaging and unwanted code, a new survey has revealed that cautious Net users should perhaps be more wary of music downloads. According to a report in the LA Times, a study carried out by online security specialist McAfee Inc. claims that 19 percent of digital music Web sites returned after searches were found to be carrying potential system security risks including the likes of adware, spam, and spyware. By contrast, the same study revealed that only 9 percent of pornographic Web sites contained such threats.It’s also worth noting that other potentially risky search targets include Web sites for electronic gadgets and on-screen computer background wallpaper. While the sheer volume of online legitimate pornography perhaps nullifies that lessened 9 percent when judged beside the drop-off in online music site population, McAfee believes that pornography, by its own business definition, doesn’t need to shoehorn such hidden adware and spam into its paid-for content in order to boost its marketplace positioning.In terms of most potentially dangerous digital music-based file-sharing program searches, the survey uncovered the term BearShare as the most likely to deliver dodgy content to users, raking in an impressive 46 percent of possibly perilous related Web sites. Somewhat oddly, McAfee’s survey also revealed that other popular search terms are likely to see users pounded with unwanted code, with the now defunct Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston combination proving to be 36 percent riskier to search for than the current Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie grouping.Also likely to cause some head scratching is news that sponsored search results, those paid for by the actual advertisers to appear separate from the standard results listed, are actually twice as likely to include risky material. The survey, the third such assessment carried out by McAfee, also included a comparison of the leading search engine options. The results returned showed that Yahoo had the safest unpaid standard search results, but also the riskiest paid results.According to McAfee’s free SiteAdvisor tool, which assesses each listed search result for users and grades them as Red, Yellow or Green (risky, somewhat risky, and safe) for suitability as per their level of content risk, Yahoo came out on top across thousands of popular searches with only 2.7 percent of Red or Yellow standard returns, while Ask.com emerged worst with 3.3 percent.

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fool on the hillJun 4th, 2007 - 15:25:24

PORN? never too busy reading 'Monsters and Critics'

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lucianoJun 4th, 2007 - 16:29:18

Why do I believe this report was written 'a la carte'? If you compare the number of porn sites, hundreds of million, versus illegal downloading sites, maybe hundreds, the comparison is not fair anymore. Percentages do not match.

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halfadderJun 4th, 2007 - 17:53:34

What source can confirm this 'fact?'

Despite the fact that the Internet is made up predominantly of pornography Web sites

what a maroon.

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John L.Jun 4th, 2007 - 21:13:15

'. . .the Internet is made up predominantly of pornography. . .' What planet is this guy from?

I can't think of the last time I last tripped over a porn site. . . I'm sure there are plenty of 'em out there, but predominantly? I bet there are more 'place holder' or 'URL squatter' sites than porn. . . I certainly hit WAY more place holders than porn.

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Reggie CravenJun 5th, 2007 - 16:39:13

How fair is it to say that the internet is for porn? Despite the song, the article is pointing out that bad things happen when downloading music...now I don't know if you have heard of this little company called Apple. They made this magic little pod, if you will, that makes it possible to get music from the computer...Apparently, a lot of people like it.

That said, the statistics may be off a bit, but I can safely assume that if you are a person who downloads porn regularly, you probably have a favorite site and don't vary from it for the specific reason of avoiding malicious crap on your computer. As always take statistics with a grain of salt, but try and use some common sense. The article makes a good point.

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