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Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Aug.19

WEBSENSE Inc, a Nasdaq-listed provider of employee Internet management solutions, has said that free personal Web hosting sites are increasingly being exploited by hackers.

These hackers seek affordable and anonymous ways to store and disseminate mobile malicious code (MMC) and dangerous types of spyware, such as keyloggers designed to steal personal and confidential information.

Since the beginning of 2005, Websense Security Labs has discovered more than 2,500 incidents of these Web sites distributing MMC, Trojan horses and keyloggers.

Earlier this year, Websense reported that free blogging accounts were being used to harbour malcode. This trend is expanding to every form of free Web hosting site. The recently uncovered sites include those available for hosting online journals, photo albums, greeting cards, music, sports `fan' pages and online scrapbooks."The growth of this trend is alarming. July has seen a major boom— in the first two weeks alone we found more instances than in May and June combined," said Mr Dan Hubbard, Senior Director, Security and Technology Research for Websense.

In the first two weeks of July 2005 alone, Websense Security Labs has discovered more than 500 incidents of free Web hosting sites that were created to spread keyloggers, Trojan horse downloaders, Trojan horse droppers, and other harmful spyware and malware.

These fraudulent, free personal Web sites have an average lifespan of two to four days, making them difficult to trace.

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