In a paper entitled “The Ghost in the Browser” (PDF) presented at the Usenix HotBots ‘07 conference in April, Google researchers outlined a study which performed an in-depth analysis of some 4.5 million Web pages—condensed from a high-level analysis of several billion URLs. The researchers found found that about 700,000 pages looked to contain code which could compromise a user’s computer, and about 450,000 (or 1 in 10) could trigger so-called “drive-by downloads” that could install malicious software without the user’s knowledge, including keyloggers, spyware, and software capable of taking over a user’s machine and turning it into a spam generator.
Digital Trends
