Security researchers: Amazon hosts nearly half of the top 10 malware distributors

  • 17 January 2014
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Thousands upon thousands of people use Amazon Web Services to host their websites — including some of the most tenacious malware distributors in the world.

A new study from IT security firm Solutionary reveals the top 10 sites that distribute the most malware. Amazon hosts four of them, including the top malware hosting site, download-instantly.com.

The report notes that hackers like using cloud-based web-hosting services like Amazon and GoDaddy due to their low costs and easy set-up processes, which give attackers an efficient way to develop and push out malicious sites. Amazon hosts the most malware distributors with 16 percent of them, while GoDaddy hosts 14 percent.
 
“The cloud has become a preferred mode for malicious actors who are using cloud computing for many of the same reasons that legitimate customers are,” reads Solutionary’s study.

The study also found that 44 percent of the world’s malware is hosted within the United States:
 


 
 
Solutionary also noted that the cloud-based hosting services let malware distributors avoid detection because they can create IP addresses in a trusted space and don’t need to worry about being blocked by geographic blacklists, for example.
Amazon has a full page dedicated to vulnerability reporting, which you can check out here.
 
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The following article is a update on Amazon hosted malware
 
(Amazon-hosted malware triples in 6 months)
 
By: HNS Staff/ Posted on 15.07.2014
 


 
 
Solutionary analyzed the threat landscape and identified the top 10 global ISPs and hosting providers that hosted malware out of more than 21,000 ISPs.
 
Amazon remained the top malware-hosting ISP and saw an increase of approximately 250 percent, while Q4 13’s second-most afflicted ISP, GoDaddy, fell 12 percent.

Rob Kraus SERT director of research, Solutionary said: "From an organizational perspective, attention to detail, especially the security basics, is often enough to deter a malicious individual or group of individuals. The tricky part of information security, and the reason we must always be mindful of the trends in the industry, is that the second you make it more difficult for a malicious actor, they have already moved on the next weak link."
 
Help Net Security/ Full Read Here/ http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2808
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Nesw article on the topic 
 
U.S. malware share rising, Amazon service No.1 in hosting it
Solutionary’s Top 10 list also includes Google and Akamai.
 
By Ellen Messmer  NetworkWorld  Jul 15, 2014
 
In its quarterly report on global malware distribution and threats, security firm Solutionary Tuesday said that 56% of the malware it captured via sensors and other means was hosted in the U.S.— a 12% increase from six months ago — and about half of the malware overall appeared to originate at 10 Internet service and hosting providers.
 
This “Top 10” list includes Amazon Web Services, France’s OVH, Akamai, Google, Akrino, Hetzner Online, CloudFlare, CDN, GoDaddy and Website Welcome, according to Solutionary.
 
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