Study Says Porn and Gambling Sites Are Magnet for Malware

Navigating the Internet always poses a danger but none more so when you choose to visit websites that contain pornographic materials or gambling content, according to a new study.

Malware Targets Gambling and Adult Content Users

The study, conducted by Fabio Massacci, and a team, at the University of Trento and Vrije University in Amsterdam, has used a vast swathe of data to reach this conclusion. The research work itself was not intended to besmirch a specific set of websites from the onset but rather attempted to identify the steps that led to people contracting malware in the first place.

Massacci used 20,000 entries from a 12 million data set provided by Trend Micro which analyzed netizen behavior in the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as Italy.

Massacci and his colleagues quickly homed in on pornographic and gambling content as the most likely hotbed for malware threats, although the research acknowledged that the frequency of use also plays a part.

“Both system behavior and content behavior increase the risk of encountering different types of malware,” Massacci explained. However, even when the evidence suggests that adult and gambling websites are more likely to lead to malware, there is no “silver bullet” solution.

Understanding Risk Factors and Malware Hotbeds

Interestingly, hackers were prone to target such websites, but not just them – many would for example focus on websites that described how to commit crimes and not get caught. Another target was those websites that described “how to hack” or commit other non-violent crimes.

As to the range of the attacks, ranged from trojan horses to cryptocurrency mining software that hijacked a computer’s CPU and GPU to extract crypto tokens, keyloggers and more. The study specifically names “illegal gambling websites,” however, indicating that licensed websites may not be as likely to lead to such security incidents.

When it comes to pornographic content, however, there seems to be no such differentiation, with virtually every domain at risk of installing such software onto its users’ devices.

Massacci’s study may seek to forewarn consumers, but it is similarly interested in helping companies understand the risks associated with their employee behavior that could result in financial damage for employers.