CUPERTINO, Calif. –  Symantec, which makes anti-malware software, has identified the 100 “Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009," the 100 sites with the most threats detected by site ratings service, Norton Safe Web, as of August.

Forty-eight of these sites feature adult content. But the vendor said the list ranged in subject matter from sites dedicated to deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services, to buying electronics. Visiting sites, even without downloading or clicking on any element, can expose a user’s computer to infection or data theft. Symantec said  75 percent of these sites have distributed malware for more than six months.

The company posted the URLs  for 30 sites, which include kingfamilyphotoalbum.com,  wadefamilytree.org; texaswhitetailfever.com a divineenterprises.net, likaraoke.com. Ratings were based on the number of threats detected by Norton Safe Web, which crawls the Web looking for dangerous sites. Safe Web analyzes Web sites using signature-based file scanning, intrusion detection engines, behavioral detection and install/uninstall analysis to identify security risks including phishing sites, malicious downloads, browser exploits and links to unsafe external sites. Judging from the names, the published list does not include many of the adult sites.