Top 10 Riskiest Top Level Domains
By Anna Johnson on November 2nd, 2010IT security vendor McAfee has released its annual ‘Mapping the Mal Web’ report which lists the ‘riskiest’ top level domains (TLDs). Surprise, surprise, topping the list are the .com and .info TLDs.
McAfee measures risk in terms of the likelihood of a given domain exposing visitors to malicious or potentially dangerous content and activities. These include malware, browser exploits, phishing, spamminess and risky affiliations.
According to McAfee’s findings, the top 10 riskiest TLDs and their associated risk weightings are as follows:
- .com (commercial): 31.3 percent
- .info (information): 30.7 percent
- .vn (Vietnam): 29.4 percent
- .cm (Cameroon): 22.2 percent
- .am (Armenia): 12.1 percent
- .cc (Cocos Island): 10.5 percent
- .asia (Asia Pacific): 10.3 percent
- .net (Network): 10.1 percent
- .ru (Russia): 10.1 percent
- .ws (Western Samoa): 8.6 percent
I’m not sure how helpful it is to know that .com, .info and .net are among the most dangerous TLDs. After all, .com and .net are among the oldest and most popular, and each of .com, .net and .info are particularly popular as generic TLDs that are relatively easy to register.
Indeed, there is certainly a relationship between how easy it is to register a given TLD and how likely it is to be used to host malware and other threats.
At the end of the day, McAfee’s report underscores the importance of trust when it comes to visiting a given website… and when expecting people to visit YOUR website.
As a website visitor, it pays to be cautious and do a little due diligence before visiting an unfamiliar website. Use such tools as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find out what you can about a given website and the business and people behind it.
As an Internet marketer it pays to establish a wide, authentic and (within reason) transparent online presence – including on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – in order to reassure someone who does a little due diligence on you.
