U.S. now hosts more malware than any other country

Research into which countries host the most infected webpages shows some interesting changes since the 2007 Sophos Security Threat Report.  The United States in particular has experienced unprecedented growth, from hosting less than 25 percent of all infected pages overall in 2007, to almost half in the first three months of 2008.   

China has demonstrated the biggest drop, from hosting more than half of all the infected pages seen by Sophos in 2007, to just under a third in the first quarter of 2008.  Elsewhere in the chart, newcomer Thailand was responsible for hosting 1 percent of all malware infected webpages, while the UK hosted 1.1 percent, down from 3 percent in the same period last year.

“The US and China are no strangers to this chart, with the two countries long holding the top two spots in this hall of shame,” notes Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos.  “However, the bottom half of the chart remains fluid, indicating that users need to remain vigilant, and those hosting websites need to ensure that they have patched against vulnerabilities that might be lurking on their site to avoid becoming part of the problem.”