Will visiting Blinkx.com infect your computer?

I've coved Blinkx before in connection with unwanted software installations. They recently came to my attention again.. and not in a good way.

Let's start with the Google Safe Browsing Diagnostics for blinkx.com:

Safe Browsing

Diagnostic page for blinkx.com

What is the current listing status for blinkx.com?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 1007 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 92 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2012-03-09, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2012-03-08.Malicious software includes 6 trojan(s), 1 exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 2 new process(es) on the target machine.
Malicious software is hosted on 6 domain(s), including miopardenton.bee.pl/, inturpo.com/, ighlandhorn.jesais.fr/.
5 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including inturpo.com/, adv-adserver.com/, adversalservers.com/.
This site was hosted on 32 network(s) including AS209 (QWEST), AS14743 (INTERNAP), AS1299 (TELIANET).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, blinkx.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

Next steps:

• Return to the previous page.
• If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.

Not listed as suspicious? But 92 out of 1007 pages attempt to install malware! That's 9.1% of all pages on the site that Google checked! But people who visit Blinkx don't just visit one page. According to Alexa, the average visitor views 3.88 pages on the site. It also notes that blinkx.com is the 1994th most popular site worldwide.

We can work out the probability of infection using the data, it's is (1-(1-(92/1007))^3.88)) which equates to a 31% possibility that the average blinkx.com visitor will be exposed to malware. OK, that's assuming that the data is accurate, and since I know for a fact there are more than 1007 pages on Blinkx and that Alexa data has its critics.. well, take that figure as being indicative rather than 100% accurate.

Compete.com reports that over 5 million US visitors look at the site per month. There are doubtless millions more visiting this site. So exactly how many people have been infected while visiting blinkx.com?

My suggestions? If you are an IT administrator, I think you want to seriously consider if allowing your users to visit blinkx.com is in line with your corporate governance strategy..

Pinball Corporation RIP?

Pinball Corporation is a company that bought the remnants of Zango, a company that had a reputation for pushing slimeware. Last year I pointed out a case where Pinball Corp were clearly not keeping an eye on the actions of their affiliates, and other people have been critical of them too.

Well, there's potentially some good news.. because according to the Washington State Corporations Division, Pinball Corp became inactive on the 2nd May 2011.

PINBALL CORP.

UBI Number	602918125
Category	REG
Profit/Nonprofit	Profit
Active/Inactive	Inactive
State Of Incorporation	DE
WA Filing Date	09/02/2010
Expiration Date	09/30/2011
Inactive Date	05/02/2011
Registered Agent Information
Agent Name	BUSINESS FILINGS INCORPORATED
Address	1801 WEST BAY DR NW STE 206
City	OLYMPIA
State	WA
ZIP	98502
Special Address Information
Address
City
State
Zip

Governing Persons

Title	Name	Address
President,Treasurer	Scott, Joel	One Market Plaza Spear Tower Fl 19 SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Secretary	Siefer, Serena	One Market Plaza Spear Tower Fl 19 SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Director	Chandratillake, Suranga	3600 136th Pl SE BELLEVUE, WA
Director	Service, Matthew	3600 136th Pl SE BELLEVUE, WA

Of note is that although the corporation appears to be inactive, the website at pinballcorp.com is still running and with no notice about the change of company status. Where Pinball Corp's affiliates stand is unknown, but given the deceptive business practices of a number of them, then I don't think too many people will be shedding a tear.

But why has the company apparently become inactive? It turns out that Pinball Corp is a wholly owned subsiduary of a UK firm called Blinkx plc, and the "inactive" date coincides almost exactly with Burst Media (for $30m). Perhaps Blinkx decided that Pinball Corp was no longer something that they wanted to have in their expanded portfolio?