There is nothing "sad" about the US

Submitted by jit on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 3:57pm

Since the US hosts 46% of URL's and China/HK hosts 3%, I find it hard to believe that the data presented was not adjusted properly, so I examined the source article and they reiterate the statistic by saying "3 out of 8" for the US and "1 out of 4" for China/HK.

However, as stated by a previous poster, the US is the biggest target. Kudos to the American IT professional, who has fought hard against malware. The US is not "sad", thank you.

China deserves kudos too, having cut their 51% to 27%. Nevertheless, China's progress represents the major change on the chart in the last year, not the US dropping the ball.

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sigh...few words, prove

Submitted by sdcat on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 1:41pm

sigh...few words, prove their study is wrong or the statistics are way off. Otherwise that study stands extra firm, thus would be the fact until the new finding's out.

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Bad statistics

Submitted by bloodgain on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 7:44am

I agree with similar sentiments below that say these numbers are a flawed statistic for several reasons.  We may, in fact, have more "nasty sites" per site hosted, more "nasty sites" per capita, and just plain old more "nasty sites" than everybody else.  These numbers are a weak portrayal of the facts, though.

I'd like to see more numbers that tell the whole story.  We may still be the worst, but I bet the margin is lower when you look at total sites hosted.  I'd also like to know where those sites originate -- how many of our hosted sites and malware sites are run from the UK, Russia, Thailand, etc.?  If we host 37% of malware, but 90% of total sites, I think that's not a bad percentage, even if it's still more nasties per site hosted.

Even more telling is that China is responsible for nearly 28%, despite (I assume) having much less total hosting than the US, and much stricter controls over their networks.

I like Ars Technica, and they usually do some pretty good reporting on technology.  I think they dropped the ball a little here, though.

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Number 1 in irrelevant studies

Submitted by Darth Ninja on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 4:48pm

I think a more accurate study would have been the percent of sites hosted in a country that have malware as in '1 in 50 sites in the US host malware' or '2% of all US sites contain malware'.

This study doesn't really give an accurate portrayal of malware hosting countries.

____________________

DarthNinja
www.DarthNinja.com

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Um we are the greatest host

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 4:47pm

Um we are the greatest host of malware because we are also the greatest target of malware. Just like MS Windows is the most virus prone OS available because it is the most virus targeted OS available. It's not that we are evil here in the USA it's that we buy stuff here with just about no restrictions. And because of this we are targeted with malware produced by companies and individuals here in the USA in the name of market research and advertising and just plain old making money. 

So it's not really all that bad or telling that the USA happens to host the most malware of any other country. It's just a sign that we the people of the USA are really some of the richest and happiest people in the world. Because of our government and our consumer and producer way of life.

If the USA were sim city then it would be a winning game.  

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I don't know why, but I feel

Submitted by I Jedi on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 4:34pm

I don't know why, but I feel like Russia should be number one. Maybe I'm thinking of something else that's bad and is related to Russia, in terms of technology. 

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USA, ALL THE WAY!!! I could

Submitted by ferds7 on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 4:23pm

USA, ALL THE WAY!!!

I could be wrong but I would assume that US also ranks #1 in the amount of websites hosted as well  Also who's to say that the majority of it isn't being paid for by someone in another country??

I am only slightly making this comment to stick up for Ol Glory but mostly making this comment because I often question the statistics that people spew out. I am a firm believer that 99% of statistics and polls are flawed.

 

"People can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know
that." - Homer   (simpson)

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