Posted by Maxim Weinstein
Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:19:00 GMT
Nearly a year ago we identified hosting providers with the greatest number of infected sites (found by Google) on their networks. At the time, the dubious honor of “leader” was held by iPowerWeb, with over 10,000 infected sites. At the time, we worked with iPowerWeb as they cleaned up their infected sites and secured their servers. We did so again when they had a smaller breakout of infected sites in December.
Notably, in our latest top networks stats, you won’t see iPowerWeb. In fact, iPowerWeb is near the bottom of our list now, with only 66 infected sites on their network.
Kudos to iPowerWeb for taking steps over the past year to secure their hosting servers against attack and thereby protecting Internet users.
Posted in all | Tags iPower, iPowerWeb, malware, stopbadware
Posted by Maxim Weinstein
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:02:00 GMT
A LiveJournal blogger, tacit, recently discovered that several iPowerWeb-hosted sites were affected by a malware attack. Visitors to the sites were redirected to malware-installing sites based in eastern Europe.
Several months ago, iPowerWeb was included in StopBadware’s report of hosting providers with the most sites in our Badware Clearinghouse. At the time, we reported quick action taken by iPowerWeb to remove the offending code from their systems.
iPowerWeb has confirmed tacit’s new report and tells StopBadware that they are working rapidly to scan their systems, remove the offending code, and lock down their systems to prevent further infection. It seems that the attack made use of PHP exploits to allow the attacker to modify the .htaccess file on the virtual servers.
iPowerWeb also noted that they have been in the process for a couple months of migrating users’ hosting accounts to a new data center that has better security and tools that make it easier for iPowerWeb to quickly respond to this type of attack in the future. They expect this to be complete sometime in the first part of 2008.
Posted in all | Tags iPower, iPowerWeb, malware, stopbadware
Posted by Erica George
Fri, 11 May 2007 20:53:00 GMT
A week ago, StopBadware reported on five web hosting providers hosting large numbers of the sites listed in our Badware Website Clearinghouse. Today, we have new information to share about how some of those web hosts are working to keep their hosted sites clean and secure. Our data last week featured five hosting providers of sites that are listed in our Clearinghouse. Sites in the Clearinghouse have been reported to us by trusted partners as hosting or distributing badware, often as the result of hacking attacks by malicious third parties. Our data reflects sites that are part of our Clearinghouse, and does not necessarily reflect the internet as a whole.
The top site in our listings was iPowerWeb, at 10,843 sites. We’re happy to report that we are now in contact with iPowerWeb, and that it has demonstrated a commitment to working proactively to combat badware. iPowerWeb has informed us that it has located and removed badware-distributing code from thousands of its sites that are listed in our Clearinghouse. These sites will now be reviewed according to our usual process. All sites that are confirmed to be clean will then be removed from the Badware Website Clearinghouse.
StopBadware has also been contacted by two other hosting providers we identified, Internap Network Services and Layered Technologies. We’re looking forward to working with these and other hosting providers to help combat badware at the hosting level. Check back soon for more updates.
Posted in homepage, all | Tags Internap, iPower, iPowerWeb, LayeredTechnologies, webhosts
Posted by Erica George
Fri, 04 May 2007 17:08:00 GMT
StopBadware recently analyzed 49,296 sites which were submitted by trusted third parties to our Badware Website Clearinghouse. We identified five web hosting companies with the largest number of infected sites residing on their servers:
• iPowerWeb, Inc., (10,834)
• Layered Technologies, (2,513)*
• ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc, (2,056)
• Internap Network Services, (1,437)
• CHINANET Guangdong province network, (786)
Many of the sites listed in the Clearinghouse as distributors of badware are otherwise innocent sites that have been hacked into by third parties. If a provider hosts a large number of sites that distribute badware, it’s possible that the provider has unaddressed security vulnerabilities that increase the likelihood of the sites the provider hosts being hacked.
iPowerWeb, one of the world’s largest hosting providers, hosts a startlingly high number of sites in the Clearinghouse. iPowerWeb’s homepage claims that the provider hosts over 700,000 sites; at 10,834, more than 1.5 percent of those can infect internet users with badware.
StopBadware spoke with some owners of websites in our Clearinghouse that are hosted by iPowerWeb. To iPowerWeb’s credit, many of their customers report that iPowerWeb personnel quickly located and removed the badware or badware-distributing code from their sites. Some customers complained, however, was that iPowerWeb support personnel were unable to provide details about how the websites were compromised.
StopBadware encourages all web hosting providers to work proactively to stem the spread of badware on the internet. StopBadware co-director John Palfrey says, “Web hackers and badware distributors are constantly finding new ways to work around the safeguards that are put in place to protect consumers. Web hosting providers must do their part to stay ahead of the curve and help keep the websites they host safe from malicious attacks.”
You can read our full press release here. If you’d like to comment on this information, or share a story about your own experiences with a web hosting provider to address a compromised site, please visit our discussion group.
* NOTE: Layered Technologies has informed us that it provides a style of web hosting known as self-managed hosting, in which its customers have full control over and responsibility for server management.
Posted in homepage, all | Tags Chinanet, Internap, iPower, iPowerWeb, LayeredTechnologies, ThePlanet, webhosts
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