.is best Scandinavian Domain according to McAfee Report 2010

The annual McAfee® report "Mapping the Mal Web" listing the worlds riskiest domains 2010 has just been released. The report finds that yet again the .is domain is in good order with regards to very high reliability and the lack of errors.

According to McAfee® the .is domain is the best Scandinavian domain, the 6th best in Europe and the 11th best in the world for 2010 (McAfee, Mapping the Mal Web 2010, pg. 18). A total of 6.102 .is-domains were investigated that referred to as many websites and email addresses. A search was done for malware, websites with browser exploits, spamminess and high risk websites run by suspect companies or individuals.

The response time of domains and error frequency was also investigated. The so called weighted error and risk frequency of the .is-domain was measured at 0.2%, which places the .is domain in place 96 of the 102 tested, the fewest errors were detected on the ccTLD .gg which, according to McAfee, is the best and most secure domain in Europe. Surprisingly .dk (Denmark) is in second place in Scandinavia and .fi (Finland) being the least secure in Scandinavia with 100% more errors than .is and in 23. position in Europe, central Asia and Africa. The error frequency of .fi increased by 41.5% between years.

The least secure country level domain in Europe, central Asia and Africa is .cm (Cameroon) where the error frequency was found to be 22.2%. The worst and least secure country code in the world is .vn (Vietnam) which has a 29.4% error and risk frequency.

It is of interest that the common domain .com is now in 1st place on the overall list as the most insecure domain - replacing .cm (Cameroo) that held the position last year. A very high proportion of .com domains tested (31.3%) were found to contain errors or risk factors. The second place is occupied by .info, a relatively young top level domain which was ment to be come a very secure domain.

It is of concern that such a large share of domains belonging to the largest top level domain are found to contain errors, viruses and other security dangers for the common user. This can only damage the trust in the Internet and could, if not handled correctly, reduce transactions over the Internet.

The above shows how important the correct management and operation of Top Level Domains are to the quality and trust of the domain. ISNIC encourages all interested, especially legislators, to study the report thoroughly. It can be found using Google to search for "Mapping the Mal Web 2010".