Malware spread according to Google

Thanks to Google's latest move to make its data more transparent, It is now possible to see the statistics on the presence of malware and of sites linking to malware. Google has announced that it is expanding its transparency reporting to include statistics from its Safe Browsing program. The Transparency Report, which also carries information about copyright removal requests and government agencies' and courts' demands for user data now has a Safe Browsing section. Google is identifying autonomous systems (AS) on the internet and how much malware they contain. This is available through a Malware Dashboard.

One example, according to the search company's statistics, the AS of Compuweb Communications Services has had 1,514 of its sites scanned by Google and 20% of them have been found to be leading to or hosting malware. Only 5% of the hosts were scanned. The US scores a remarkably low 2% on this metric with over 14 million sites scanned for contamination. The scans show that on a global scale, a company called Webair Internet Development Inc tops the charts with 43% of its sites, in a 2% sample, link to or host malware.

Approximately a billion people are using Googles Safe Browsing system. Google's own Chrome browser, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari all make use of the Safe Browsing data to warn users when they try and navigate to malicious web sites.