Spywares and trojans in web freebies  30 July 2005, Sydney Morning Herald - Cyber criminals have found a new doorway into our hard drives, this time under the guise of seemingly friendly community sites, blogs and freebies.

Since the beginning of the year, US security company Websense reports it has discovered more than 2500 incidents of innocuous-looking websites distributing malicious code, trojan horses and dangerous spyware designed to steal information.

Photo albums, scrapbooks, blogs, screensavers and free greeting cards are all becoming potentially dangerous destinations as hackers and cyber criminals take advantage of a lack of security features on many of the hosting sites where they reside.

One of the sites found by Websense played music along with a greeting-card message as their computer was being infected with spyware.

Paul Ducklin, head of technology at Sophos Asia Pacific, said it is very difficult for ordinary internet users to differentiate between malicious downloads and safe material. A user's best defence is a full suite of anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software.

"A website URL may look legitimate, but what looks like a special interest site for say, cat lovers, could in fact spread malicious code," he said.

Original aritcle: Danger lurking on web freebies

What you can do about it?

1. Before you visit a website, check it with McAfee Site Advisor http://www.siteadvisor.com

McAfee Site Advisor is a free website checking tool that detects potential dangers associated with a particular website.

2. Do not download or install anything without first ascertaining that it is virus- and spyware-free.

3. Patch your browser in a timely fashion. Older browsers may have security flaws that allow hackers to access your computer.

4. Turn off Javascript and Java when visiting websites of unknown integrity.