How Malware Misinformation Becomes Porn Panic

by Calico Rudasill, Sssh.com Porn For Women and Couples

Every so often, a popular porn site will be used by cyber criminals as a distribution platform for one of their exploits, leading to a familiar refrain in the media about how surfing porn sites is risky behavior, something bound to expose your computer to malware, viruses and other tools of the hacking trade.

Read on…

While a lot of the advice given to people about avoiding malware in such articles is pretty sound – tips like keeping your antivirus software up to date, not opening email from unknown senders and not clicking ad banners and links when surfing unfamiliar sites – the underlying assumption that porn sites are riskier than non-porn sites is only sustainable if you ignore the very experts the media interviews to get its information on malware and other exploits.

Take the latest furor over ‘malvertising’ on popular adult tube sites, for example; if you look just at the headlines alone (especially ones like “Watch PORN online? You’ve probably been infected by a computer VIRUS”) you’ll be tempted to conclude there’s something inherently riskier about going to a porn site – any porn site – than surfing mainstream sites.

There’s just one small issue with this assumption: it happens to be bullshit.

Hey, Be Reasonable: We Can’t Read EVERY LINE of Our Own Articles!

Making matters worse, the very same article sporting the hyperbolic headline above features a comment from the researcher who first reported the exploit in question, in which he clearly explains that the “surfing porn sites gives your computer viruses” axiom is unfounded.

“There’s this idea that adult sites are more dangerous to visit than ‘regular’ sites,” observes Jérôme Segura, a senior security researcher with Malwarebytes, the firm which first reported the malware being distributed by “rogue advertisers” via the ExoClick ad network. “I don’t believe it’s entirely true, especially for the top sites because they do dedicate a lot of resources to fighting fraud and malware. Based on what we have seen in the past months as far as malvertising goes, we have seen just as many top mainstream publishers as pornographic ones.”

So, in other words, if I watch porn online it doesn’t mean I’ve “probably been infected;” it means I have roughly the same chance of having been infected as if I were surfing other kinds of sites – a revelation which, to be fair, doesn’t make for a particularly eye-catching headline.

When the Legend Becomes Fact….

Somehow, I don’t think the person who wrote the headline just missed what Segura said; my hunch is they simply ignored it.

After all, if one doesn’t take the position porn sites are super risky to visit from a security perspective, then one can’t slap up a stunning humdinger of clickbait like: “Watch Porn Online? Your Personal Information Probably Has Been Stolen By Vicious, Murderous Stalkers Who Are OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW!!”

The problem with Segura’s comments, from a modern journalistic perspective, is that they’re reasonable, which in the current climate of news reporting is akin to saying they’re dull, lifeless and unlikely to garner any attention sandwiched between headlines screeching “Britain on SUPERSTORM Alert” or “New Case of Mad Cow Disease Sparks Fears of Fresh Outbreak” or “How to Get Kim K’s Fab Smokey-Eye Look.”

At the end of the day, the people who write these articles and headlines just don’t give a particular shit whether what they’ve written is true; they just want it to be compelling. (A similar phenomenon likely explains the ongoing popularity of presidential candidate Donald Trump, come to think of it.)

That Said, Tube Sites Probably ARE Riskier Than Porn Pay Sites

While I don’t buy into the idea that frequenting popular free porn sites is necessarily going to turn your PC into a some hacker’s remote-controlled spamming device, there’s no question their popularity makes them attractive targets for cyber crooks, just as the then-overwhelming market share held by Microsoft’s software products made them the most commonly targeted brand for hackers back in the ‘90s.

Since tube sites generally are (as the Youtube-derived name implies) sites to which anyone can upload videos, the odds of problematic files being uploaded to them is, presumably, higher than a site to which only a handful of people have access.

Sure, a porn pay site run by criminals bent on infecting the computers and mobile devices used by their customers could use all the same techniques employed by the third-parties who infected Pornhub, YouPorn, etc., to execute their scams – but why go to all that trouble when you can just find a way in to an existing site which already draws tens of millions of visitors every day?

Either Way, There’s No Real Cause for Panic Here

At the end of the day, whether you spend your online time surfing porn sites or CNN, there’s always a chance some manner of threat or exploit is lurking around, waiting for you to click the wrong link, or download the wrong file. If you keep your protective software up to date, however, and generally employ common sense, chances are you’ll be fine.

Of course, if you’re really concerned about getting infected by viruses delivered through free porn sites, there’s actually another way to acquire porn which will really reduce your risk of infection: Buy your porn, instead.

It’s an old-fashioned notion, I realize, but consider this: The reason free porn sites use platforms like ExoClick is to make money, with the unintended side effect being the addition of a point of vulnerability to the security of their site. On an adult pay site, the money is made by selling you access to the porn – meaning (usually) no third party ad platform through which cyber crooks can offer you a side of virus with your MILF porn entrée.