Breaking: You Can Get Viruses From Porn Sites

This article is over 14 years old and may contain outdated information

Recommended Videos

Results from an in depth study of the security of free porn websites were released at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security,which was held at Harvard.

The practices used by free porn websites to drive traffic (their only commodity) “have almost inadvertently created a whole ecosystem that’s easy to abuse for cyber crime on a large scale,” according the leader of the study, Dr. Gilbert Wondracek of the International Secure System Lab.

I know, I know, but listen, we all can’t be academics.

Dr. Wondracek’s researchers studied 270,000 websites on 35,000 domains, almost all of which were free.  They say that 3.23% of the sites were simply malware in disguise.  They also set up a couple of dummy porn sites to collect data about visitors, and found that 40% were browsing with vulnerable browsers.

From the BBC:

Dr Wondracek recommended that anyone visiting porn sites keep their security software up to date and use the “safe browsing” modes found in many browsing programs.

Remember, that website may look clean, but… you can’t beat the Axis if you get a Vundo?

(via /.)


The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Susana Polo
Susana Polo
Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.