By Peter Berton

LOS ANGELES – Sites that reside on .xxx Top Level Domains are relatively clean of viruses and malware, according to a new report entitled NameSentry Report 2013. In fact, sites with .xxx suffixes are about as safe as those ending in .no (Norway), .ie (Ireland) and .nz (New Zealand).

All four domain extensions received “Excellent” safety ratings in the report compiled by Architelos, a maker of TLD management products.

In contrast, Architelos issued an “Exercise Caution” warning for .com, .org, .net and .biz sites. The company placed .info, .us and .ch (China) in the “At Risk” category.

Collectively, the TLDs covered in the NameSentry Report [PDF] account for more than 257 million web addresses, or more than 99 percent of all domains currently registered.

“Our analysis shows that 90 percent of listed domains were found when they were advertised in spam, with 6 percent involved in spreading malware,” the report noted. “Phishing involves above 150,000 unique domains per year. Botnet command-and-control domains are relatively rare, but have a disproportionate importance.”

So why are .xxx sites less prone to viruses and malware than .coms? According to the report’s authors, a likely reason may be that .xxx domains are neither as common nor as trafficked as .coms and therefore have not made it to the top of cybercriminals’ radar yet — essentially, the same reason Windows-based products are more popular attack targets than those based on the Apple or Android operating systems.

Looking at the bigger picture, Architelos said the Web is becoming more and more dangerous, at least when it comes to websites bearing bad intentions.

“The total number of active abusive domains increased 25 percent from December 2012 to May 2013,” the NameSentry report noted. “As a result, the namespace quality of the internet is decreasing…. The ‘Safety Level’ for the entire internet is ‘Exercise Caution.’”