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Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report revealed that religious websites have triple the number of virus-related threats than pornographic sites

A new report by security software company Symantec showed that religious websites are more likely to infect computers with viruses than pornographic sites.

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report revealed that religious websites have triple the number of virus-related threats than pornographic sites.

"It is interesting to note that websites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth," said Symantec in its Internet Security Threat Report. "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."

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report draws its conclusions from the Symantec Global Intelligence Network, which keeps an eye on cyber threats and activity in over 200 countries.

Earlier this week, Symantec also reported that the Flashback trojan, which has infected hundreds of thousands of Mac computers, generates about $10,000 per day. The Flashback trojan disguises itself as an install Java applet on hijacked sites, and when the user approves it, the trojan runs a piece of code that exploits a flaw in Java to remove OS X's anti-malware abilities. It then has the ability to steal clicks from ads on Google's search engine next to regular search results. Flashback installs alternative control programs, which turns Macs into bots. Meanwhile, the cyber criminals reap the benefits from the ghost clicks, meaning ad clicks that are not performed by a human, but by a bot instead.

Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report also mentioned that cyber attacks have increasingly targeted smartphones and tablets as well as employees at government agencies.

Source: Symantec


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Why so surprised?
By Motoman on 5/4/2012 5:35:25 PM , Rating: 3
Religion *is* an infection.




RE: Why so surprised?
By ritualm on 5/4/2012 5:35:38 PM , Rating: 4
And a major threat to national security.


RE: Why so surprised?
By Motoman on 5/4/2012 5:55:14 PM , Rating: 3
Verily.


RE: Why so surprised?
By BZDTemp on 5/4/2012 9:03:57 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. Like that book burning nut case or the people from the so called "Family association".


RE: Why so surprised?
By Ammohunt on 5/4/2012 9:05:17 PM , Rating: 4
I would sooner worry about Marxists they are already negatively affecting our way of life.


RE: Why so surprised?
By superstition on 5/7/2012 12:59:50 AM , Rating: 1
Joe McCarthy is my hero, too.


RE: Why so surprised?
By frozentundra123456 on 5/4/2012 11:22:29 PM , Rating: 3
Our country was founded on religious principles and at least partially in the pursuit of religious freedom. So I dont think it is fair to say religion is a threat to national security. I agree that unbalanced people do destructive things in the name of religion, but others also do many good deeds as well.


RE: Why so surprised?
By corduroygt on 5/4/12, Rating: 0
RE: Why so surprised?
By frozentundra123456 on 5/5/12, Rating: -1
RE: Why so surprised?
By Jedi2155 on 5/5/2012 4:32:28 PM , Rating: 3
I think media publicized religions are a blight on society however most churches that are in your neighbor shy away from the media, and there are a lot of decent people in there. I would not call religion a blight on society, only the media.


RE: Why so surprised?
By FayKnaim on 5/5/2012 4:51:48 PM , Rating: 2
Did you mean Hitchens/Fry, instead of Dawkins/Fry ?


RE: Why so surprised?
By corduroygt on 5/6/2012 9:47:22 PM , Rating: 2
Yea got the mixed up sorry


RE: Why so surprised?
By superstition on 5/7/2012 1:08:37 AM , Rating: 2
"still captures the spirit of the constitution, which is designed to prevent governments into coercing their people to believe in something they don't want to."

Newdow


RE: Why so surprised?
By lennylim on 5/4/2012 6:29:03 PM , Rating: 2
Amen.


RE: Why so surprised?
By geddarkstorm on 5/5/2012 3:14:14 AM , Rating: 3
Not in the slightest. It is supposed to give a moral foundation to help people from going over a brink (albeit, there are different sorts of "religion", such as just "religiously doing something" as in a habit a person does even to the irrational, so by religion I mean the morality of believing in God).

The painful truth is humans can be destructive and self destructive. They can be sociopathic and homicidal. They can be ambitious manipulative bastards with no moral compass or redeeming qualities. That's the reality of humanity; some people are just innately that way. Religion has nothing to do with it, except for trying to suppress that darkness (e.g. social cohesion). Or at least that's what it's supposed to be doing.

But humans also tend to be rebellious on top of our other neuroses, so lashing out against religion blindly because of the moral guidance trying to restrict behavior is amusing, yet totally not surprising.

If you think it's religion that's leading the extremists in the middle east to do what they do, you have another thing coming. They are just following leaders with strong wills, and those folks could spout -anything- and the crazies would follow them anyways. Those mass suicide events (like the group that thought a UFO was hiding behind a comet to come take them away) in our own country should be ample example to show the desire of some segments of humanity to be controlled and told what to do--directed by a powerful will (charisma is nothing but this).

Until you can prove to me that loving your neighbor, caring for orphans and widows, loving kindness and humility are terrible ills endangering all our lives, your characterization of religion is nothing but irrational.

You want the real ill to fight? Focus on what makes certain kinds of people latch like leeches to folks with silver tongues, who then lead them into madness through whatever name/device they choose, be it religion, UFO nonsense, jingoism (Nazis, Stalinists, North Korea), conspiracy theories, or whatever else. That's your true target, start facing that reality like a man.


RE: Why so surprised?
By RedemptionAD on 5/5/12, Rating: 0
RE: Why so surprised?
By embedded_bill on 5/6/2012 2:20:09 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
Religion *is* an infection.


Intolerance is the same seed of hatred that brought us racism and homophobia. It is unfortunate how prevalent it is on this site.

Some very intelligent and useful people in our society, far more intelligent and useful than you or I have different and competing (often if not always incorrect) views as advocates of various religions.

Shall we join together and banish them?


RE: Why so surprised?
By superstition on 5/7/2012 1:14:34 AM , Rating: 1
No, it's ignorance, not intolerance.

The word tolerance is misused so often. People only tolerate things that they consider bad. Since homosexuality isn't a disorder (Hooker's work was the first to show that there is no difference between heterosexual and homosexual men when it comes to mental health) and Eugenics has been debunked (taking away scientific/rational justifications for racism), there is no reason to tolerate homosexuals or people of different "racial groups" (in quotes because race is a rather anachronistic way to categorize people).

Ignorance is the problem. The ignorant mistreat homosexuals and people of other "races" due to mistaken beliefs/attitudes about them. Political opportunities take advantage of this ignorance for what they believe is gain (although, as bigotry is socially corrosive, it's illusory gain in the big picture).

No, we should not tolerate homosexuals and people of other races. We should appreciate them.


RE: Why so surprised?
By superstition on 5/7/2012 1:16:36 AM , Rating: 2
opportunists, rather


RE: Why so surprised?
By embedded_bill on 5/6/2012 2:24:11 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Religion *is* an infection.


Intolerance is the same seed of hatred that brought us racism and homophobia. It is unfortunate how prevalent it is on this site.

Some very intelligent and useful people in our society, far more intelligent and useful than you or I have different and competing (often if not always incorrect) views as advocates of various religions.

Shall we join together and banish them?


RE: Why so surprised?
By masamasa on 5/7/2012 11:15:45 AM , Rating: 2
No doubt! You don't even need to get infected by spyware. Visiting the site alone is enough of an infection!


Tony will declare jihad on me
By Ramtech on 5/4/2012 5:29:58 PM , Rating: 5
Not just computers
By corduroygt on 5/4/2012 5:17:15 PM , Rating: 4
But also likely to infect users as well




I am a Christian
By hiscross on 5/6/2012 5:45:14 PM , Rating: 3
I don't take offense when people call me, Jesus, or GOD bad names. I can care less. It is your choice to live in heaven or hell forever. I would say that my fellow Christians would do them selfs a big favor and learn and embrace capitalism as a moral way of serving the human race. This may seem be a conflict, but when you really study how capitalism has moved the human race forward, my point will be better understood. Put it this way, if all that capitalism built would disappear right now, the 99.99% of the human race would be naked and in a empty plot of land.




Whatever
By kjboughton on 5/6/2012 10:36:56 AM , Rating: 2
Symantec: More likely to take your money than a hacker




By borismkv on 5/7/2012 1:53:47 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
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.


Two things:
1. Religious/Ideological doesn't mean only religion. This can be anything from a church blog to an atheist non-profit. So religion isn't the sole source of this number. Bad Journalism at its finest, taking out words and meaning to fit an agenda. Thanks for trying to write propaganda, Tiffany...
2. The full list of the top 10 dangerous sites doesn't list Religion/Ideological as a category. The top ten are as follows:
1. Blogs/Web
Communications
2. Hosting/Personal
hosted sites
3. Business/economy
4. Computer & Internet
Shopping
5. Technology
6. Education/
Reference
7. Automotive
8. Entertainment
& Music
9. Health & Medicine
10. Pornography

This means that the religious/ideological sites that have infects are a smaller subset of other categories.

What this actually suggests is that hackers are trying to focus more on attacking people who visit religious and ideological pages more than people who surf for porn. Not that religious and ideological groups are packing their sites with malware. You seriously need to learn how to do research and not just take what's on the surface.




lol, umad
By MERKJONES on 5/4/12, Rating: -1
RE: lol, umad
By borismkv on 5/4/12, Rating: -1
RE: lol, umad
By Ammohunt on 5/4/12, Rating: -1
RE: lol, umad
By corduroygt on 5/4/2012 10:30:03 PM , Rating: 3
Hitler was a Catholic.

Still it's the typical religious nutjob argument about Stalin and others...No Atheist dictator killed in the name of atheism, they killed only to add to their power. However, many religious people have killed others in the name of their religion.


RE: lol, umad
By geddarkstorm on 5/5/2012 3:22:49 AM , Rating: 5
Hitler didn't kill in the name of religion. And how many people have killed in the name of a country? In the name of Democracy, in the name of Communism, in the name of SPARTAAAAAAA? How many people have killed in the name of "following orders"?

How many people kill just to kill (serial killers)? How many people kill in the name of land (tribes in Africa) or turf (gangs)? How many people kill in the name of drugs? How many people kill in the name of profit (malpractice, known cut safety costs)?

How many people have killed in the name of race? How many people have killed in the name of sexual orientation? (Hate crimes in general)

How many people have killed in the name of something as abstract as honor (bushido)?

People kill and people are bastards. They need no reason, and they will use any reason to "justify" themselves. If you want to change or better human nature, find the core of that and face it down. Don't be silly or try to blind yourself and say "no one's killed in the name of atheism", which of course they have too.


RE: lol, umad
By borismkv on 5/6/12, Rating: 0
RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/6/2012 10:27:24 AM , Rating: 2
Hitler didn't liked Christianity because it wasn't useful for him he actually liked Japanese Hirohito's Cult and Muslim faith

The reason why Communism and Fascism didn't liked Christianity because they viewed it as competition you cant deny that

Religious have moral code... right heres excerpt from their manual

Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse. (1 Peter 2:18 NAB)

"Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT)

Is it right to act on these perverted texts? if they are still in Bible someone might say yes

Problem is the Bible is like dual-use technology there are some good things but also truly evil stuff and no one said these parts are evil we should edit this out because this is not compatible with our beliefs


RE: lol, umad
By heerohawwah on 5/6/2012 5:13:08 PM , Rating: 2
Perverted texts?...Please try to keep your prejudice to yourself. Perhaps you've heard of this thing called context? You obviously don't know how to read.
Atheism is the most racist believe system on the planet. From Darwin to Hitler. In fact Athiesm is the one and only religion on the planet that unilaterally declares all aspects of all other religions as being 100% false. And according to atheism, any concept of right and wrong is also, well, wrong...Good and evil don't exist, all that matters is survival.
In reality Darwin was the racist, a man who simply found a way to manipulate 'science' in order to justify his prejudices and his religion. And according to Darwin, black people aren't even human, neither are Asian people, only white Europeans which he preferred the best. And as such the last century is a vivid demostration of evolution justified and inspired racism, murdering millions of people.
Sadly, It's simply amazing how much of your beliefs you can justify when your science and intelligence is only skin deep, or if you only choose to read one sentence out of a book with a millions.


RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/7/2012 6:15:07 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Perverted texts?...Please try to keep your prejudice to yourself. Perhaps you've heard of this thing called context?

Next time please read my arguments and yes i am saying that parts of Bible have truly disturbing messages

quote:
You obviously don't know how to read

That doesn't sound like turn the other cheek

Portraying Darwin as racist thats nice Darwin was least racist person in 19th century hell if you read Lincoln - Douglas debate by todays standards Lincoln was racist

Theres whole site dedicated to rebuttal of this nonsense:
quote:
In contrast to the existing views on race, Darwin showed that: People cannot be classified as different species All races are related and have a common ancestry All people come from "savage" origins The different races have much more in common than was widely believed The mental capabilities of all races are virtually the same and there is greater variation within races than between races Different races of people can interbreed and there is no concern for ill effects Culture, not biology, accounted for the greatest differences between the races Races are not distinct, but rather they blend together

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/darwin_...


RE: lol, umad
By heerohawwah on 5/7/2012 2:58:32 PM , Rating: 2
All I can say Mr. Ramtech is that you clearly have some issues to work out. Your prejudices against the bible and Christians are just a form of religious racism. And it’s clear you have no intention of actually learning about what Christians believe and that you only want to re-enforce your own prejudices. (..Hence your other posts in this article referring to non-Christians as being Christian)
As for Darwin; A man who has a whole website dedicated to his innocence and defending his prophetic status? I'm not surprised, before him Atheists were not considered intellectuals, simply because they had no way to justify there beliefs. And after him, racism around the world increased by orders of magnitude. (Also very well documented fact) For the first time people who disliked other religions, or other peoples could justify that hatred by virtually any means, believing that they were simply more ‘evolved’ and more ‘enlighten’ than others. Nazism is simply the logical conclusion of Darwinian Evolution. And sadly to this day, there is virtually no evidence at all to support such a concept and it still simply relies on its religious dogmatic following. Where other religions can honestly look at one another and see the good and bad within each other, atheism and evolution provides itself no such foundation. If it did, the whole belief system would fall apart for the very idea that atheism/evolution is scientific and logical…is simply a lie.


RE: lol, umad
By bennyg on 5/8/2012 3:22:30 AM , Rating: 2
A Christian relying on a "documented fact" to support an argument. lol. And calling Darwin a prophet and deriving a negative connotation from defensiveness and saying "there's no evidence"! Since when does a Christian know irony!??

You must have been taught in one of those redneck schools in the South.

They mustn't have taught you history either (particularly anything older than 4004BC?). If you check your timeline, the slave trade started in the 16th century, when religion well and truly controlled society. Darwin's theories started gaining popularity after his voyage on the Beagle in the mid-19th, and it wasn't widely accepted until the 20th. So if anything, Evolutionism correlates with the *abolition* of the slave trade...

I and a lot of other non-Godbotherers aren't prejudiced against religion, only a subset: that unfortunately well populated sect called the Hypocrites.


RE: lol, umad
By StevoLincolnite on 5/5/2012 12:34:58 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
If you're counting the number of each group that has caused a major genocide attempt in the past 100 years, you need to put a few more into the atheist column.


And hundreds more in the religious column.

* Christian mobs killed pagan priests and their believers.
* Crusades.
* Catholic extermination camps in World War 2.
* Vietnam where Food, medical supplies were given to Christians first.
* Rwanda Massacres.

The Christian religion has been as bad as any countries government or war, why anyone would follow such a church which has caused so much hate I will never understand.
Believe in your God if you want. - But if there is a God, I doubt he would actually give a rats if you prayed to him in a church or your home.

Sad part is, the Christian religion still expresses hate even today, especially it's disliking for Homosexuality who just want equal rights to love the people they love.

www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christianity_and_v iolence


RE: lol, umad
By geddarkstorm on 5/5/2012 3:43:15 AM , Rating: 2
Problem with your thinking is Christian teaching doesn't teach hate. And it's amusing how that's all you can drag up in your slices of history. Really, that's it, that's the worst?

What about the Mayans and cutting out the hearts of prisoners? What about the Iroquois and butchering the defeated? What about the Romans and their crucifixions? What about the Mongols and their wiping out whole city states, redirecting rivers over them, waiting around just to slaughter the returning survivors, and salting the fields to prevent any plants from ever regrowing?

Who directed all the massive wars that swept through ancient China time and again? Or the feudal states of Japan? Who wrote the rules that just looking at a samurai wrong could get your head lopped off?

Christianity teachers explicitly to love everyone, put others first, and accept people for who they are. Yes, there is moral guidance for how to conduct a church, and different churches in different societal situations were given slightly different guidance. Yes, there's moral guidance for how to live a "pure" life personally, or as pure as one can get. But no where is there guidance to hate. And Christianity is dedicated to grace and mercy.

Did you know that the theologian Boswell uncovered proof that the catholic church routinely married same sex couples up to the 14th century? Or that King James, who commissioned the translation of the Bible that bares his name was a homosexual? Why did this change, not due to the nature of Christianity itself, but just society.

People will always do evil things, have always done evil things, and will use whatever name or be under whatever name when they do those things. Christianity by nature is dedicated to all that is good; no where in Christianity are "crusades" ever advocated or mentioned, nor burning people, nor extermination camps, nor taking things first (quite the contrary, a Christian is told to provide for others first and foremost), nor to massacre (and were not the Christians of Darfur the object of very modern genocide?)! All those things are absolutely against Christianity.

Don't confuse general human horrificness with the intrinsic nature of Christianity; that is a decidedly ignorant thing to do.


RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/5/2012 3:52:15 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Christian teaching doesn't teach hate


Christians are disagreeing with you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Chur...


RE: lol, umad
By ShaolinSoccer on 5/5/12, Rating: 0
RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/5/2012 10:21:18 AM , Rating: 2
If Christians are teaching so much about love why don't they edit this bad stuff out?

Then why don't for example United Methodist Church will say okay this is Bible its full of bad stuff but we edited it and its no longer "hate filled book" its like selling C4 to everyone with letter use it only for peaceful purposes or selling dual use technology to Iran

quote:
And yet, Atheists teaching is all about hate...

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

And i am sure that you wrote that with hate in your heart


RE: lol, umad
By The Raven on 5/5/2012 10:41:16 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
And yet, Atheists teaching is all about hate...
Let me preface this by saying that I disagree with this statement being an atheist myself lol
quote:
If Christians are teaching so much about love why don't they edit this bad stuff out?
Why don't the a religious (atheists) edit out what is happening in south central and Mexico with the drugs and gangs? That S is in no way happening in the name of religion.

Face it, religion is only a veil that people place over violence. They have ulterior motives to do bad things.

Having said that, there are some sects (FEW) of Christianity, Islam, Hindu, etc. that actually espouse hate and/or death. And you can put atheism and science on that list of groups that have their (FEW) portion of nutjobs as well.


RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/5/2012 1:49:22 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Face it, religion is only a veil that people place over violence. They have ulterior motives to do bad things.

Bible is manual for Christians right? do you agree on that?
Let say that you have mechanic he has manual he skips the first part where how to fix your car was properly explained and reads something like assemble engine without piston rings

Sure he skipped the important part... but can you blame him its written there and theres no DEPRECATED in there

Then why let them use Bible as justification for their evil deeds
Btw if you remove the evil stuff from Bible thats good deed xD

Just continue to sell C4 most people will use it just for demolition...

Next time please address my point...


RE: lol, umad
By Reclaimer77 on 5/5/2012 9:19:06 AM , Rating: 2
Wow a whole 40 members of that church. Look out world!!!


RE: lol, umad
By Ramtech on 5/5/2012 10:32:03 AM , Rating: 2
Jesus began with 12 Apostles


RE: lol, umad
By StevoLincolnite on 5/5/2012 4:14:34 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Problem with your thinking is Christian teaching doesn't teach hate.


That would be true if they weren't spouting that homosexuality is a sin, against nature and all that other stuff.


RE: lol, umad
By The Raven on 5/5/2012 11:13:40 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
* Christian mobs killed pagan priests and their believers. * Crusades. * Catholic extermination camps in World War 2. * Vietnam where Food, medical supplies were given to Christians first. * Rwanda Massacres.
Let's throw another red herring in there. Racism, racism, racism, racism and racism.

When in fact it was power, power, power, power and power to keep/get themselves on top of the "food chain".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_God_Go


RE: lol, umad
By The Raven on 5/5/2012 10:55:22 AM , Rating: 2
Hmm...I dunno. This study was done by Symantec.
This would be like an umpire determining who won a boxing match.


RE: lol, umad
By borismkv on 5/7/2012 1:37:40 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, it's more like one of the boxers in the match deciding who won. Symantec themselves are the producer of the world's most pernicious virus: Norton Antivirus.


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