Like the real world, the virtual world of the Web has some dangerous addresses. A new report, released Wednesday by protection technology firm McAfee, says Hong Kong’s .hk domain has jumped by 28 others to become the most dangerous domain on the Web.

The report, titled Mapping the Mal Web Revisited, found that 19.2 percent of all Web sites ending in the .hk domain were a defense threat for Web users. China, with a .cn domain, is in second place with more than 11 percent of its sites risky.

Tokelau Improves by Last Year

The .hk domain replaced last year’s number-one dangerous domain, .tk in Tokelau. The real-world Tokelau is a tiny island in the South Pacific, occupied by only 1,500 public. Its domain dropped to 28th place that year. Samoa, a group of islands additionally in the South Pacific, plus improved its .ws domain, to 12th riskiest.

Apparently, the McAfee report helped Tokelau wake up to its

reputation. According to Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development at McAfee, last year’s report spurred the domain manager in Tokelau to review its policies.

Green added that virtual threats are constantly changing. “Web sites that are safe today,” he said, “can be dangerous tomorrow. Surfing the Web based on conventional wisdom is not sufficient to avoid risk online.”

While some virtual countries are becoming known as unsafe, others are getting a reputation as having the safest domains. For instance, Finland, with a .fi domain, has overtaken Ireland’s .is as the safest domain, with just .05 percent of its sites risky. Second place as the safest is Japan’s .jp domain.

270 Percent Jump for the Philippines

Romania (.ro) and Russia (.ru) are still in the top five most dangerous domains, with 6.75 and 6 percent, respectively, of their sites risky. The Philippines, with a .ph domain, had an explosion…

Orginal post by Top Tech News