Comments on: How Google handles malware: a historical overview http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/ neat fun stuff Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:55:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Riley http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-218017 Riley Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:28:07 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-218017 yes, malware has been quite the pain for a while now and quite a few times I have managed to get it removed by myself, so I suppose I have been lucky, but it would be nice if the search engines protected us from it. yes, malware has been quite the pain for a while now and quite a few times I have managed to get it removed by myself, so I suppose I have been lucky, but it would be nice if the search engines protected us from it.

]]> By: hikaye http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-108100 hikaye Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:45:45 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-108100 I totally agree with you Matt. Google is doing a great job and is protecting many an unsuspecting user. Letting the webmaster know via the console is excellent I totally agree with you Matt. Google is doing a great job and is protecting many an unsuspecting user. Letting the webmaster know via the console is excellent

]]> By: Benjamin Mack http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105901 Benjamin Mack Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:11:55 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105901 Hey, a smiliar project to the SpyBye is the "Web Exploit Finder", created by me and some friends from school last summer. Maybe you'll like it: http://www.xnos.org/security/web-exploit-finder.html Contact me if you want to know more. benni. -SDG- Hey,
a smiliar project to the SpyBye is the “Web Exploit Finder”, created by me and some friends from school last summer. Maybe you’ll like it:
http://www.xnos.org/security/web-exploit-finder.html
Contact me if you want to know more. benni.
-SDG-

]]> By: Peter Fox http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105565 Peter Fox Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:30:16 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105565 Last week I was pretty horrified to see in the serps that one of my main sites was marked as a malware site! I checked up and sure enough it had been hacked and some nasty code added to the index file. We fixed the site, blocked the security hole and informed the really nice guys at stopbadware.org and a couple of days later they reported back that the site was clean again. If the site hadn't been marked as a danger source in the first place it could have been months before I noticed the problem so I could have lost a whole lot of business. A big well done and thanks to Google! Last week I was pretty horrified to see in the serps that one of my main sites was marked as a malware site! I checked up and sure enough it had been hacked and some nasty code added to the index file. We fixed the site, blocked the security hole and informed the really nice guys at stopbadware.org and a couple of days later they reported back that the site was clean again.

If the site hadn’t been marked as a danger source in the first place it could have been months before I noticed the problem so I could have lost a whole lot of business. A big well done and thanks to Google!

]]> By: Brian http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105285 Brian Thu, 31 May 2007 13:21:56 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-105285 Can you point me in the right direction... I have been on your site a few times, mainly when the Shi.... hits the fan on our site. We were penalized by google on monday. We are not knocked off google, but when we used to get 25% of all our traffic from Google search results and now we ger 5% something is wrong. I know you can't comment on my site, but a general idea on where to look would be helpful. It happen once before and we found a link on our site to a "bad neighbor" when we removed it everything was fine. I have gone over all the rules the webmaster page has on google and I can not understand why this happens. Would you be able to post a response, generally telling people what else to look at if you are penalized? Thank you Can you point me in the right direction…
I have been on your site a few times, mainly when the Shi…. hits the fan on our site.

We were penalized by google on monday. We are not knocked off google, but when we used to get 25% of all our traffic from Google search results and now we ger 5% something is wrong. I know you can’t comment on my site, but a general idea on where to look would be helpful. It happen once before and we found a link on our site to a “bad neighbor” when we removed it everything was fine. I have gone over all the rules the webmaster page has on google and I can not understand why this happens.

Would you be able to post a response, generally telling people what else to look at if you are penalized?

Thank you

]]> By: Errioxa http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104927 Errioxa Wed, 23 May 2007 08:12:41 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104927 Hello Mutt. Why do not you add antivirus to the Google Tool bar? Hereby, not only it would report of the infected pages when you do a search but also it would warn you when you come for other sites. When you come to Spain, Spain is diferent ¡¡¡ Hello Mutt.
Why do not you add antivirus to the Google Tool bar? Hereby, not only it would report of the infected pages when you do a search but also it would warn you when you come for other sites.
When you come to Spain, Spain is diferent ¡¡¡

]]> By: Andy http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104908 Andy Tue, 22 May 2007 20:45:44 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104908 Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I'm in favor of Google doing at least some "policing". It seems to me as an outsider that part of the business of running a search engine that millions of people use is creating trust among users. I think this works two ways: 1. No one will use Google if they are not generating useful search results. So if Google suddenly penalized legitimate sites, it has a direct influence on their wallet size. 2. If people feel that they are being jipped by Google's malware "policing", they won't use Adwords or any of the other fancy tools that Google makes a killing from. In general, I would have no problem if Google openly admitted tomorrow to policing the web, because Google only holds power as long as they people use it, and they won't use it if it's not useful. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I’m in favor of Google doing at least some “policing”. It seems to me as an outsider that part of the business of running a search engine that millions of people use is creating trust among users. I think this works two ways:

1. No one will use Google if they are not generating useful search results. So if Google suddenly penalized legitimate sites, it has a direct influence on their wallet size.

2. If people feel that they are being jipped by Google’s malware “policing”, they won’t use Adwords or any of the other fancy tools that Google makes a killing from.

In general, I would have no problem if Google openly admitted tomorrow to policing the web, because Google only holds power as long as they people use it, and they won’t use it if it’s not useful.

]]> By: Norman Diamond http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104888 Norman Diamond Tue, 22 May 2007 11:37:48 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104888 I'm pretty glad to see this kind of protection offered to searchers. These warnings are probably the second-most important kind of protection in its class. I hope that the most important kind is also being offered, but oddly didn't see it mentioned. Around 2 years ago, old, and hopefully obsolete, here's the kind of situation where searchers really most needed protection. I typed in some identifying information about a hardware device, hoping to find a device driver for it. Search results included a page that looked promising, it looked like the manufacturer's page which would offer a download of the driver. (In fact a few days later I could confirm that it really was the correct page.) The manufacturer's site was down. That's nothing unusual, lots of manufacturers still have occasional outages. So I clicked on the link for Google's cache of the page, and the cache looked pretty promising too, it looked like the real page (and confirmed it a few days later). I went back to the search results page and clicked on another link to download the driver from Google's cache. I got the download! Ohhhh... so _that's_ why the manufacturer's site was down. But before they went down, Google had cached the virus. I hope Google takes equal care in its caching as it does in warning users. I’m pretty glad to see this kind of protection offered to searchers. These warnings are probably the second-most important kind of protection in its class. I hope that the most important kind is also being offered, but oddly didn’t see it mentioned.

Around 2 years ago, old, and hopefully obsolete, here’s the kind of situation where searchers really most needed protection. I typed in some identifying information about a hardware device, hoping to find a device driver for it. Search results included a page that looked promising, it looked like the manufacturer’s page which would offer a download of the driver. (In fact a few days later I could confirm that it really was the correct page.) The manufacturer’s site was down. That’s nothing unusual, lots of manufacturers still have occasional outages. So I clicked on the link for Google’s cache of the page, and the cache looked pretty promising too, it looked like the real page (and confirmed it a few days later). I went back to the search results page and clicked on another link to download the driver from Google’s cache. I got the download! Ohhhh… so _that’s_ why the manufacturer’s site was down. But before they went down, Google had cached the virus.

I hope Google takes equal care in its caching as it does in warning users.

]]> By: cookies http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104533 cookies Tue, 15 May 2007 03:40:54 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104533 Brian - its the crack sites that are causing software developers to implement harsher DRM and anti theft measures. I've even had potential customers tell me that they will see if they can find a crack instead of buying our software !!! Brian – its the crack sites that are causing software developers to implement harsher DRM and anti theft measures.

I’ve even had potential customers tell me that they will see if they can find a crack instead of buying our software !!!

]]> By: Paul http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104518 Paul Mon, 14 May 2007 20:47:32 +0000 http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-malware-a-historical-overview/#comment-104518 I agree with Scented Candles, great job GOOG! "All in all, I think Google does a pretty good job of protecting users from getting infected, while at the same time providing tools that assist webmasters in detecting and correcting hacked urls that could spread malware." I would also agree with this. I've never had a problem when searching with Google as I have with others in the past. Though this issue seems to be taken care of now on most other engines, I've always considered Google + my Norton to keep my PC relatively safeguarded from Malware/Spyware. I agree with Scented Candles, great job GOOG!

“All in all, I think Google does a pretty good job of protecting users from getting infected, while at the same time providing tools that assist webmasters in detecting and correcting hacked urls that could spread malware.”

I would also agree with this. I’ve never had a problem when searching with Google as I have with others in the past. Though this issue seems to be taken care of now on most other engines, I’ve always considered Google + my Norton to keep my PC relatively safeguarded from Malware/Spyware.

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