GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum

GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum (https://gfy.com/index.php)
-   Fucking Around & Business Discussion (https://gfy.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26)
-   -   'Shady' Porn Site Practices put Visitors @ Risk (https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=973060)

Barefootsies 06-12-2010 07:55 AM
'Shady' Porn Site Practices put Visitors @ Risk
 
It's always interesting to read the mainstream media opinion of porn.

Quote:
Visitors to porn sites are at serious risk of being exploited by cyber criminals, a study has suggested.

It found that many sites harboured malware or used "shady" practices to squeeze money out of their visitors.

By creating their own porn sites researchers found that many consumers were vulnerable to known bugs and loopholes.

Competition among porn sites makes the online adult industry ripe for abuse by hi-tech criminals.

"They have almost inadvertently created a whole ecosystem that's easy to abuse for cyber crime on a large scale," said Dr Gilbert Wondracek, a computer security expert from the International Secure System Lab, which led the study.
Hidden danger

Dr Wondracek said the team embarked on the study to find out the truth of the widely held view that porn sites are dangerous to visit.

"There are studies looking at the profitability and economics of the industry but we are the first to come at it from a security and more technical point of view," he said.

Statistics suggest that approximately 12% of all websites offer pornography of one sort or another and that 70% of men under 24 browse these sites.

As a first step the researchers trawled pornographic sites to classify what they found and how the industry was structured.

The big distinction was between free sites and those that charge for access. Typically pay sites produce content they give to free sites to drum up traffic.

More than 90% of the 35,000 pornographic domains analysed in the study were free sites.

The researchers analysed the 269,000 websites hosted on the 35,000 domains to see which hosted malicious software. About 3.23% of these sites were booby-trapped with adware, spyware and viruses.

Many others used "shady" practices to keep visitors onsite. These included javascript catchers that made it hard for people to leave a page.

Others use scripts that re-direct visitors so when they click on a link they do not see the video or image they were expecting but are passed to an affiliate site.

The vast majority of sites engage in this trading of traffic or clicks, said Dr Wondracek.

"Visitors are being abused as click bots," he said.

As most sites were free, the only resource they could exploit as a revenue source was this traffic.

"It's cut-throat competition," said Dr Wondracek. "Everybody tries to get as much traffic as possible."
Finding victims

Traffic is used in many different ways. Popular sites sell it to those looking for an audience, some is used to direct visitors to affiliates who provide content and sometimes it is used to boost rankings in search engine indexes.

It could also be a great way for hi-tech criminals to get a ready source of victims, said Dr Wondracek.

To test this idea the researchers created two adult sites of their own, populated them with free content from porn producers and spent $160 (£108) to get traffic piped to these sites.

Analysis of the 49,000 visitors sent to their sample sites showed that 20,000 were using a computer and browser combination that was vulnerable to at least one known exploit.

"As an attacker you want to make your life easier," said Dr Wondracek. "If you can have these 20,000 people come to a place instantly, why not?"

With many porn sites appearing in the top 100 most popular sites on the web this could mean that huge numbers of people are caught out when they browse for adult content.

While relatively few porn sites were infecting visitors, it is difficult to spot good from bad, he said.

"For the average user it might be hard to tell an honest porn site from a dishonest porn site until you click on something," he said.

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.

The researchers presented their results at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security held at Harvard from 7-8 June.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10289009.stm

Caligari 06-12-2010 08:00 AM
old article. i love it when "doctors" go to great lengths/time/money/research to end up stating the obvious!

"Visitors are being abused as click bots," he said.:1orglaugh

Agent 488 06-12-2010 08:00 AM
that article was crap.

sortie 06-12-2010 08:00 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barefootsies (Post 17240354)
It's always interesting to read the mainstream media opinion of porn.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10289009.stm

I guess I'm mainstream then, because I didn't read anything in that article
that I objected to.

Agent 488 06-12-2010 08:01 AM
of course "captain save an industry" wont read it and say it\s about cross sells.

seeandsee 06-12-2010 08:07 AM
it;s not problem in porn, it's problem in people making problems

Paul Markham 06-12-2010 08:07 AM
Maybe we should all start selling anti virus programs from our sites as well as porn.

Agent 488 06-12-2010 08:11 AM
one study i read the most dangerous sites out there were like mp3s, ringtones etc. porn wasn't on the list. this article is hype.

Caligari 06-12-2010 08:22 AM
yes i would still consider mainstream far more lethal. warez, torrents...i wouldnt touch that shit with a ten foot pole.
not only that, half the shit being sold in mainstream is snake oil, bullshit rip off crap.
thats not to say there isnt bullshit in adult, but the majority of the time you know what you are getting.

sortie 06-12-2010 08:26 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caligari (Post 17240412)
yes i would still consider mainstream far more lethal. warez, torrents...i wouldnt touch that shit with a ten foot pole.
not only that, half the shit being sold in mainstream is snake oil, bullshit rip off crap.
thats not to say there isnt bullshit in adult, but the majority of the time you know what you are getting.
People who got hit with $150 in cross sales might disagree.

Agent 488 06-12-2010 08:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sortie (Post 17240419)
People who got hit with $150 in cross sales might disagree.
buy any acia, teeth whiteners, money making guides, or free product trials lately?

mainstream is 1000% worse and the real cause of the new visa regs.

woj 06-12-2010 08:35 AM
"The researchers presented their results at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security held at Harvard from 7-8 June."
I can see some blogger doing "research" like this for shits and giggles, but don't these researchers have better things to do? what good came out of this study? that 3% of porn websites are infected?
:1orglaugh

Caligari 06-12-2010 08:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sortie (Post 17240419)
People who got hit with $150 in cross sales might disagree.
i would agree there are the shady bullshit practices in adult, just saying the most of the time you get what you pay for.

in the numerous test sign ups i have done with adult sites in my life i have yet to get hit with a hidden x sell or cross sell. granted i am looking for it, but anyone buying a subscription should also be looking.

on my sites when i get into review mode i tell people to be always look carefully before signing up. i probably get less sign ups doing this but i think i gain more trust and repeat visits with surfers.

Quagmire 06-12-2010 08:45 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham (Post 17240377)
Maybe we should all start selling anti virus programs from our sites as well as porn.
You mean like a lot of the mainstream flash game portals that install the toolbars and SecurityAV and SecurityEssentials2010 fake anti-virus stuff? :error

We're vilified in porn, yet almost all the warnings I get about exploits when surfing are from mainstream sites, not checking porn links.

(yes I know your post was tongue in cheek)

Relentless 06-12-2010 08:46 AM
www.WebsiteSecure.org helps ethical sites earn more by certifying paysites for security conscious consumers.

sortie 06-12-2010 08:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by woj (Post 17240433)
"The researchers presented their results at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security held at Harvard from 7-8 June."
I can see some blogger doing "research" like this for shits and giggles, but don't these researchers have better things to do? what good came out of this study? that 3% of porn websites are infected?
:1orglaugh
:1orglaugh

Probably none; but the researchers don't know what the project will yield until
after the research is complete. At that point, why not publish what you found
since throwing it away doesn't do anything either.

Grapesoda 06-12-2010 09:04 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caligari (Post 17240359)
old article. i love it when "doctors" go to great lengths/time/money/research to end up stating the obvious!

"Visitors are being abused as click bots," he said.:1orglaugh
studies show that teenagers are interested in sex :thumbsup

Barefootsies 06-12-2010 09:46 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bm bradley (Post 17240475)
studies show that teenagers are interested in sex :thumbsup
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Funny how that works with puberty.

Barefootsies 06-12-2010 11:10 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quagmire (Post 17240448)
We're vilified in porn, yet almost all the warnings I get about exploits when surfing are from mainstream sites, not checking porn links.
Agreed fine sire.

Barefootsies 06-12-2010 05:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relentless (Post 17240449)
www.WebsiteSecure.org helps ethical sites earn more by certifying paysites for security conscious consumers.
Yeah, I noticed there are a few of those now a days. They have been advertising in some of the trade mags. I wonder how big a difference they truly make.

Cyber Fucker 06-12-2010 05:42 PM
Who made this research? This is complete bullshit.


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:47 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
©2000-, AI Media Network Inc123