Porn Surfing Is Safer Than Browsing Religious Sites

Is this a good definition of irony? The fact that, according to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, porn sites are, by and large, safer for web surfers than sites dedicated to faith and ...
Porn Surfing Is Safer Than Browsing Religious Sites
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  • Is this a good definition of irony? The fact that, according to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, porn sites are, by and large, safer for web surfers than sites dedicated to faith and religion? If irony is getting the opposite result than what was expected, then the fact that surfing porn is safer than surfing religion fits almost perfectly, especially when you consider the social ramifications.

    Yes, porn is much more mainstream than in the past, but the anonymity of the Internet has contributed directly to porn’s popularity growth. Would porn be as openly popular if people still had to go to the local gas station to get the mylar-covered magazines or if they had to go to video stores to rent the adult movies they want? Considering the personal embarrassment people are always looking to avoid, it stands to reason that this kind of adult content would not be as popular as the Internet allows it to be.

    And that’s why Symantec’s report concerning sites dedicated to faith and religion are three times as likely to contain malware than porn sites is considered ironic. When you consider the fact that Internet porn has long had the reputation of being a malicious file haven, Symantec’s findings (PDF) are surprising:

    …we’ve determined that 61% of malicious sites are actually regular Web sites that have been compromised and infected with malicious code. It is interesting to note that Web sites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth…

    The illustrate their point, Symantec introduced a graphic listing the top ten list of dangerous sites in regards to malware:

    Dangerous Sites

    Concerning the more religious sites out there, Symantec pulls no punches:

    Moreover, religious and ideological sites were found to have triple the average number of threats per infected site than adult/pornographic sites. We hypothesize that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free – it’s not good for repeat business.

    Does this mean that porn site owners are more diligent about keeping their service malware-free than personal blog owners are? That’s actually not too much of a reach. Many porn site owners are business people who understand that infecting the machines of your customers is not a good business strategy. Meanwhile, maintaining a personal blog does not require a great deal of web programming savvy, which could lead to a lack of platform updates, which are normally introduced to plug security holes the previous editions had.

    Of course, this only explains the increase in relation to personal blogs. It does not explain why business and shopping sites, groups that should be able to afford respectable web programmers, are more dangerous than porn sites. Perhaps porn site owners are more conscious of malware, considering the industry’s reputation, and therefore, are more willing to keep their services malware-free.

    Whatever the case, Symantec’s report is clear one thing, malware deployment is not decreasing. In fact, the opposite is true:

    Malicious Attacks Skyrocket By 81%
    In addition to the 81% surge in attacks, the number of unique malware variants also increased by 41% and the number of Web attacks blocked per day also increased dramatically, by 36%…

    Meanwhile, the U.S. government is more concerned about placating the entertainment industry, at least when it comes to Internet regulation. Clearly, as Symantec’s report reveals, there are far greater issues that need to be tackled.

    [Lead image courtesy]

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