Please do not get confused with the title.

Domains cannot be dangerous by themselves. The websites and their creators make the domain name dangerous.

I recently came across a report from McAfee, which states that 19.2% of all Web sites ending in the “.hk” domain pose a security threat to Web users. China (.cn) is second this year with over 11%.

These are significant figures. These are based upon an analysis by McAfee of 9.9 million heavily trafficked Web sites found in 265 different country.

The report ranks the domain names as follows.

Most Dangerous Web Domains:

1. Hong Kong (.hk)
2. PR of China (.cn)
3. Philippines (.ph)
4. Romania (.ro)
5. Russia (.ru)

Safest Web Domains:

1. Finland (.fi)
2. Japan (.jp)
3. Norway (.no)
4. Slovenia (.si)
5. Colombia (.co)

The other interesting facts are…

• The chance of downloading spyware, adware, viruses or other unwanted software from surfing the Web increased 41.5% over 2007
• Sites which offer downloads such as ringtones and screen savers that are also loaded with viruses, spyware and adware increased over the last year from 3.3% to 4.7%
• The Philippines (.ph) experienced a 270% increase in overall riskiness
• Tokelau (.tk) and Samoa (.ws) were notably safer in 2008 dropping to 28th and 12th
• In Europe, Spain (.es) experienced a 91% increase in overall risk

The report is a bit dated, as it was published in June 2008, but still an interesting read. If you are interested, you can have a look at the report here.