sdcat

December 24, 2008 at 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.

bloodgain

December 24, 2008 at 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.

Darth Ninja

December 23, 2008 at 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

Keith E. Whisman

December 23, 2008 at 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.  

I Jedi

December 23, 2008 at 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. 

ferds7

December 23, 2008 at 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)