StopBadware.org today released a report analyzing over 200,000 sites reported by Google as exhibiting badware behavior.

See the press release and/or the report for more information.

We attempted to contact the owners of the top 10 infected network blocks identified in the report. Note that a network block owner may or may not have control over the content of sites hosted on that block. Here’s what we heard from the companies we reached:

Google:

We take malware blogs very seriously. On a daily basis, malware blogs are created by bad guys, and subsequently detected and deleted by Google. The 4,261 figure represents some of the malware blogs we delete over a 30 day period.

Because we’re very aggressive and very proactive in preventing and detecting harmful content placed on our services, the Blogger numbers are disproportionately higher than they would be on non-Google properties.

Given that there are millions of active blogs in our network, 4,261 is just a very small percentage of the total blogs.

With our aggressive approach, malware blogs, like spam blogs, tend to have short lifespans. WRT to the impact on users, if an existing popular site that gets millions of page views per day gets compromised for a few hours, that represents a huge number of infections compared to one of these blogs.

The Planet:

The Planet provides dedicated, self-managed hosting services to our 22,000 customers, which means they maintain full control of their servers. Many of our customers are resellers, and they lease space on their servers – sometimes to as many as 200 companies per box – to their clients.

Nonetheless, we have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that precludes customers from distributing malware of any kind. Once we are aware of any inappropriate use of our servers, our Abuse Department initiates an investigation. If we identify issues, we proactively work with customers so they meet our AUP.

SoftLayer:

SoftLayer Technologies is a provider of data center services centered around the delivery of on-demand server infrastructure. We do not manage the content or applications hosted from our infrastructure as this is the direct responsibility of our customers, many of which are in fact hosting resellers. Having said that, we also have a very strict acceptable use policy which you can find here: http://www.softlayer.com/legal.html.

We try to be as proactive as possible in eliminating any and all content from our network that breaches the terms of this policy. But, as I am sure you are aware, this is not always an easy task.

I have forwarded your email to our abuse department so that they can start investigating the findings you have suggested below. We will take all necessary actions to remove any malicious material from our network so that we can better serve our customers and the entire Internet community.

iEurop:

Of course we’re interesed in any tool that helps us protecting internet users.

If you can send us any info regarding malware hosted on our machines we’ll be more than happy to remove those websites …

Our friends at Consumer Reports* have released a report on the financial impact of online threats, showing that US consumers have lost more than $7 billion in the last two years to threats like viruses, spyware and phishing.

The 2007 “State of the Net” report found that 34 percent of its surveyed subjects had a computer explosed to spyware in the past six months alone.

* Activating protection. Consumers should turn on their operating system’s firewall, spam blocker, or other built-in security application if it has one. Also activate spam filtering and other online protection provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or e-mail service.

* Shutting down. Turning off the computer when not using it for long periods (or at least disconnecting the Internet cable) can reduce the chance that a malicious remote computer will access it.

* Using public computers with care. Consumers should not conduct financial or other personal business on computers at libraries, hotels, or airports. The same goes for using a personal computer on a public wireless network.

* Considering Mac. Although Mac owners face the same problems with spam and phishing as Windows users, they have far less to fear from viruses and spyware. Because Macs are less prevalent than Windows-based machines, online criminals get less of a return on their investment when targeting them.

* Watching downloads. The myriad of free utilities, games, and other software on the Internet can be useful, but many are laden with viruses and spyware. Stick to downloads from well-known manufacturers or trusted sites.

You can read the report, plus additional web security information including reviews of security software, in Consumer Reports’ September issue.

* Note: Consumer Reports WebWatch serves as an unpaid special advisor to StopBadware.