The Most Banned, Phished, and Unblocked Internet Sites

The following is another report on the state of the Internet and the people who use it. It will be broken down into categories as to preferred sites, blocked sites, and sites that are spoofed.

This data comes from a consortium of Domain Name System hosts.

Spoofing, if you are unfamiliar with the term, means that someone is impersonating another individual via email, with a social site user name, or any other means of pretending to be someone else via electronic means.

Phishing is a means of impersonating an legitimate web-site. To do this a bona-fide site is copied and presented to the outside world as a legitimate site. The intent is to get someone to use the site by being convinced of its authenticity. Phishing is often used to skim credit card and other financial data.

A Whitelist is a list of preferred or approved list of entries. In this regard the white-list is a list of sites that people want access to or put into their approved list. This list is made up of sites that individuals personally made certain could be accessible.

The following sites are on the top of the list for approved browsing.

1. YouTube.com — 12.7%
2. Facebook.com — 12.6%
3. Gmail.com — 9.2%
4. Google.com — 9%
5. Translate.Google.com — 6.3%
6. LinkedIn.com — 6%
7. MySpace.com — 4.7%
8. Skype.com — 4.6%
9. Deviantart.com — 4.3%
10. Yahoo.com — 3.9%
    

Blacklisting means banning or blocking certain sites from access. These are sites that individuals personally made sure were blocked. The top ten blacklisted sites are as follows:

1. Facebook.com —14.2%
2. MySpace.com — 9.9%
3. YouTube.com — 8.1%
4. Doubleclick.net — 6.4%
5. Twitter.com — 2.3%
6. Ad.yieldmanager.com — 1.9%
7. Redtube.com —1.4%
8. Limewire.com — 1.3%
9. Pornhub.com —1.2%
10. Playboy.com — 1.2%

You'll notice that many of the same sites are on these two opposing lists. This is an indication of the amount of traffic these sites generate and the volatility these sites represent.

Corporations and companies often block particular sites to prevent employees from violating the law or wasting time while at work. The following sites were the top ten blacklisted or banned in corporate settings:

1. Facebook.com — 23%
2. MySpace.com — 13%
3. YouTube.com — 11.9%
4. Ad.Doubleclick.net — 5.7%
5. Twitter.com — 4.2%
6. Hotmail.com — 2.1%
7. Orkut.com — 2.1%
8. Ad.Yieldmanager.com — 1.8%
9. Meebo.com — 1.6%
10. eBay.com — 1.6%

Note that with the exception of eBay, Ad.Doubleclick.net, and Ad.Yieldbuilder.com all of the sites listed are social and social media sites. Ad.Doubleclick.net and Ad.Yieldbuilder.com are sites devoted to tracking Internet purchases and presenting users with advertising geared toward past purchases.

eBay, is of course, an auction site.

The following sites have been counterfeited the most often. These types of sties are often replicated with a similar sounding URL. The target audience is then sent an email the site linked in the message.

The attempt then is to get the person receiving the email to go to the site linked and enter sensitive information such as account numbers, social security numbers, and the like. Of course this information is then used to rob the user of financial information or identity.

The top ten Phished sites are:

1. PayPal — 45.9%
2. Facebook — 5.3%
3. HSBC Group — 4.1%
4. World of Warcraft — 3.2%
5. Internal Revenue Service — 3%
6. Bradesco — 1.9%
7. Orkut — 1.7%
8. Sulake Corporation — 1.5 %
9. Steam — 1.2%
10. Tibia — 1%

The list below contains the locations of the top ten phishing sites:

1. United States — 53.8%
2. Germany — 6.3%
3. Canada — 5.2%
4. United Kingdom — 4.8%
5. France — 3.5%
6. Russia — 2.9%
7. China — 2.8%
8. South Korea — 2.8%
9. Italy — 2.5%
10. The Netherlands — 2.4%

The following are the top ten categories of sites blocked:

1. Pornography — 85%
2. Sexuality — 80.1%
3. Tasteless — 77.3%
4. Proxy/Anonymizer — 76.2%
5. Adware — 69%
6. Nudity — 67.2%
7. Hate/Discrimination — 58.7%
8. Lingerie/Bikini — 58.5%
9. Gambling — 58%
10. Drugs — 57.3%

This list represents the top percent of site types banned or blocked on the most servers. For example eighty-five percent of servers blocking sites, block pornography.

The author was not compensated in any way, monetarily, with discounts, or freebies by any of the companies mentioned.

Though the author does make a small profit for the word count of this article none of that comes directly from the manufacturers mentioned. The author also stands to make a small profit from advertising attached to this article.

The author has no control over either the advertising or the contents of those ads.