Microsoft IIS sites 'twice as likely' to host malware

By Robert Jaques on Jun 8, 2007 3:23 PM
Filed under Security

Web servers running Microsoft's IIS software are twice as likely to host malware as other site servers, it was claimed this week.

Nagendra Modadugu, of Google's newly-formed Anti-Malware Team, based his claims on an analysis of 70,000 domains that were either distributing malware or hosting attack code.

Geoff Sweeney, chief technology officer at behavioural analysis firm Tier-3, said: "This is potentially bad news for the web hosting industry, as it sheds new light on the complex issues surrounding website security in a hosting environment.

"It is not just the web server application that can be attacked, but the programming of the website itself which is a platform independent issue."

High profile cases such as computer hardware giant ASUStek, which recently had its website compromised, created a situation where visitors to the site may have been attacked simply by accessing the site.

Sweeney warned that the integration of attacks originating from popular sites and desktop-based vulnerabilities is "particularly concerning" given the potential for huge infection rates.