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By Joris Evers, 13 March 2007 08:50

NEWS

The safest websites on the internet end in dot-gov, according to McAfee.

McAfee found no risky websites within the domain for US government agencies, it said in a report. In contrast, one in 10 sites that end in dot-tk, the domain for the tiny island of Tokelau, either spread malicious software or warrant a warning because of pop-ups or other nuisances, McAfee said.

The security company tested millions of websites in 265 top-level domains, representing more than 95 per cent of the trafficked web, it said. "The report... revealed surprisingly large differences in safety from one domain to another," McAfee said in a statement.

Overall, 4.1 per cent of tested websites require a warning, it said. The company used its SiteAdvisor technology, which assigns red, yellow or green ratings. A site with a red flag typically delivers malicious software such as adware, spyware or viruses; a yellow site may deliver pop-ups. Green sites are considered safe.

The most risky large country domains are Romania (dot-ro) and Russia (dot-ru), of which 5.6 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively, require a warning, McAfee said. These country domains are also the most likely to host sites that silently try to exploit security holes in web browsers to install malicious programs, so-called drive-by downloads, it said.

It is safer to surf to websites in the domains for Finland (dot-fi), Ireland (dot-ie) and Norway (dot-no), McAfee said. Of all sites tested in those domains, 0.10 per cent, 0.11 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively, raise concerns, according to the McAfee report.

While dot-com is the most popular generic domain, it is not the riskiest one. That dubious honour goes to dot-info with 7.5 per cent of its sites rated as risky by McAfee. The runner-up is dot-com with 5.5 per cent of sites labelled as perilous, it said.

Still, many more people surf to dangerous websites in the dot-com domain, McAfee said. The popularity of dot-com magnifies its impact on search and browsing; 86.6 per cent of clicks to sites that set off the SiteAdvisor alarm go to dot-com sites, McAfee said.

The complete study and results, along with an interactive map, are available online.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com