Sites with .hk, .cn found to be risky

Websites bearing the .hk and .cn domain suffixes - indicating they are registered in Hong Kong or the mainland - are potentially the most risky to navigate, according to a leading antivirus software vendor.

And the McAfee company said websites bearing a country's suffix were not necessarily based in that country.

The company identified the two domains, along with .info, as the most dangerous after testing 9.9 million websites in 265 domains for malicious codes, excessive pop-up advertisements and excessive forms to fill out.

Of the .hk sites that were tested by the company, 19.2 per cent were regarded as dangerous or potentially dangerous. This compared with 11.8 per cent for .cn and 11.7 per cent for .info.

Those bearing the suffixes .gov, .jp and .au - websites of the US government and those registered in Japan and Australia - were found to be the least dangerous. McAfee said its second 'Mapping the Mal Web' report was a safety guidebook to risky online neighbourhoods, aimed at identifying domains with the highest concentration of hazardous sites.

McAfee research analyst Shane Keats, the lead author of the report, said the number of dangerous sites registered in the .hk and .cn domains had increased in the past year.

Mr Keats said sites using .hk were not necessarily based in Hong Kong, but had chosen the most affordable domain registration in jurisdictions with the fewest regulations.