.ro found to be one of the least secure domains

Romania cannot be compared with Finland, which tops the list with the lowest percentage of insecure websites, especially in terms of the degree of technology and internet adoption. The oldest Romanian sites, put together haphazardly, are insecure. The 5.6 percent is likely justified because of this reality, said Gabriela Mechea, general manager of Gecad Net.
Softwin representatives believe the main reason for Romania's position in the list is the lack of concern for security and the quality of IT services offered, both from the internet service providers and IT outsourcing companies as well as from the internal IT departments of the companies.
“The attackers use automatic scanners for the vulnerabilities of web applications or networking services and when they find a possible victim it will be immediately exploited, becoming the perfect host for spyware, phishing, viruses or spam,” Softwin representatives said.
Romanians invest very little in IT security and the security of websites, Mechea added. A study conducted by Gecad Net in collaboration with Avantera in 2006 revealed that more than 50 percent of Romanian companies invest about two percent of their IT budget in security measures. Individual users, including the ones who own websites, invest even less if anything at all. As a result of that, web surfers are apprehensive about entering .ro pages. This will affect both the image and the Romanian businesses on the internet.
In Mechea's opinion, the lack of interest in security is a matter of education, which could be fixed through a long-term process.
The report creates a global map of the riskiest and safest places to surf and search on the World Wide Web. McAfee analyzed and ranked 265 top-level domain extensions like Japan's .jp, France's .Ffr and commercial .com based on its web safety tests for spyware, spam, exploits and scams. The report, “Mapping the Mal Web,” revealed surprisingly large differences in safety from one domain to another.
Low or no cost domain registration and minimal domain oversight appear to drive at least some of the higher levels of risk found at some top-level domains. For example, one reason the .biz extension may be preferred by spammers is because they are available for immediate use, rather than after a typical 24-hour waiting period – a critical advantage in beating anti-spam services and blacklists, the report found.

Roxana Mihul