The .ie domain name is the second safest domain name in the world, according to a new report by experts at McAfee.
McAfee’s report found the number of suspect sites varies dramatically across top-level domains, ranging from a low of 0.1% in Finland (.fi) to a high of 10.1% for the tiny island of Tokelau (.tk). Overall, 4.1% of all sites tested by SiteAdvisor are rated suspect (Red) or likely to be suspect (Yellow), which is the highest and second-highest threat rating.
Some Web practices, like joining a site or downloading a file, are much more dangerous when done at some domains. For example, entering an e-mail address at a random .info domain results in a “stunning” 73.2% chance of being spammed because of it. The .info top level domain was found to be the riskiest generic domain (2nd most suspect overall), with 7.5% of its sites rated as likely to be suspect, according to the study, which also shows that .com is the second-most-risky generic domain (5th most suspect overall), with 5.5% of its sites rated as risky.
What makes a domain more appealing to the Web’s evil-doers? Price and anonymity. Spammers constantly change domains to avoid being filtered and blacklisted. Registration costs, while often less then $10 a site, quickly multiply. That’s why Tokelau, which gives out domains for free, is a likely popular hideout for nefarious sites.
The World’s Most Suspect Web Domains:
No. 1: Tokelau (.tk)
No. 2: Information (.info)
No. 3: Samoa (.ws)
No. 4: Romania (.ro)
No. 5: Commercial (.com)
No. 6: Business (.biz)
No. 7: Russia (.ru)
No. 8: Network (.net)
No. 9: Families and Individuals (.name)
No. 10: Slovakia (.sk)
The complete study and results, along with an interactive map, is available at this Web site. (http://www.siteadvisor.com/studies/map_malweb_mar2007.html) Editors Note: Strictly speaking, the research report found that .gov has zero nefarious sites, so this makes the .ie 3rd safest, however .gov is only available to US State Agencies and so makes our favored .ie the 2nd safest available domain name!