Google's Warnings For Sites Containing Harmful Downloads
Google has released a new security feature to alert you when you might be attempting to view sites that contain malicious downloads. Read more for details…
We all have that one friend who needs their computer “fixed” every time you visit. When you look at the computer it’s not actually broken, just infected with hundreds of malware files and a trojan or two… or three. After a virus scan and a few deletes the system is up and running again, ready to be re-infected in a week or two. Well, apparently Google has that friend too!
Google has announced on their Online Security Blog their latest security feature they have named SafeBrowsing. This feature was created to help keep users safe online, protecting against unwanted software that has the potential to make unwanted changes to your computer or burden you with pesky ads and popups.
The feature works in three separate areas working together to target infectious downloads:
- Chrome: The above warning will alert you before viewing sites that contain unwanted downloads.
- Search: Google now identifies deceptive sites and will prevent them from appearing in your search results.
- Ads: Google has begun to disable ads featured on Google that link to sites with infected downloads.
Hopefully, this new feature will prevent your teenage cousin or new-to-the-web grandmother from downloading harmful sites and we can all thank Google for making the web just a little bit more trustworthy for users. Just remember to set Google.com as their homepage, because we can’t guarantee that Yahoo or Bing will follow Google’s example.
This does present problems for site owners who are not registered with Google Webmaster Tools or who have been flagged for containing malware. Major search engine optimization penalties will follow for those who fail to remove any malware or links to malware. If you are unsure as to whether or not your site may contain malware, read this posts for the steps you should take.
SafeBrowsing will follow Google’s Unwanted Software Policy, a set of clear guidelines working to create a secure web environment. This policy covers the basic guidelines for transparent installation and upfront disclose to all contained within the files. Software installation should be “straightforward, easy to understand, and based on clear choices made by the user”. And then collectively the entire world yells “Yay!”. I wonder if this will get rid of those sneaky checkboxes that sign you up for unwanted emails too!. Probably not, but we can all dream, right?
Here’s to happy and safe browsing!
For more information about SafeBrowsing and other Google features visit their about page at: Google.com/about/