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post This site may harm your computer

January 5th, 2008

Filed under: links, security, web — mike hall @ 3:33 pm

No, not *this* site, but sites that show up in Google’s search results just might:

See the little warning underneath the title up there? Well apparently this message shows up under search results that Google has “identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer”. You can even try to click the link, but Google will warn you once more just to be sure:

If you’ve protected yourself like I’ve talked about before, then you’ll probably be ok, but most people don’t. (Disclaimer: Don’t hold me responsible if you get h4ck3d anyway. You’ll be the one that has to fix it!)

I just have to wonder how Google is deeming these websites as “virus-y”. Does it have a farm of machines armed with various browsers visiting all sorts of different sites and then seeing if they come out without a scratch? Or does Google go test the site right after it gets added to their database? But then what if a site was originally clean, it gets added to Google’s database, but then a week or so later it either gets infected or even intentionally starts installing malware to unsuspecting visitors? Then you have Google results that indicate that the site is safe to visit even though it really isn’t. And that’s probably worse: having a false sense of security. Then what if Google in their infinite wisdom says that my site “may harm your computer”. What am I to do? Would I be stuck with this stigma forever?

However, it’s still probably a good idea for Google to provide this type of service. Most people still can’t tell a malicious website from a hole in the ground and wouldn’t be able to tell if anything had been installed even if their system is totally infested with trojans, worms and the like. What’s worse is that some people seemingly don’t care or even want to get infected. And with malware variants on the rise, don’t expect things to get any better…

1 Comment »

  1. Very Good Information

    Comment by Praveen
    January 31, 2009 @ 10:11 am

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