Beware where you surf to keep your PC safe from malware

Surfing the internet is getting riskier for those looking to avoid getting a virus, downloading malware or trying to protect their computer's speed and safety, according to McAfee's third annual Mapping the Mal Web report. Of 27 million websites and 104 top-level domains researched, McAfee found that 1.5 million sites, or 5.8 percent, were risky. That's up from 4.1 percent from the past two years. Domains from the small African nation of Cameroon reached the top spot this year with 36.7 percent of its sites posing a security risk. Because .cm is often a typo for .com, McAfee said, cybercriminals like to use that domain to set up typo-squatted sites to hit you with malware. Even if you type it correctly the .com domain isn't much safer, rocketing from ninth last year to second this year in riskiness, with 32.2 percent of its sites potentially hazardous to PC health. Romania (.ro) was tagged as the riskiest domain for malicious downloads, with 21 percent of its sites delivering payloads of viruses, spyware, and adware. McAfee sees the .info domain as the most spam-filled with 17.2 percent of its sites generating junk mail.