22 May 2007, 15:49

Google launches online security blog

Google plans to help users make their use of the Internet safer in a new blog it has dedicated to this purpose. Among other things, the company uses the blog to present the measures it has taken to protect users better. The first entry in the blog mainly focuses on the geographic distribution of websites and servers that try to inject malicious code onto user systems when they surf by (drive-by download).

Among other things, the Google security experts point out that warnings are issued for websites that may inject malicious code. Google adds a warning to such websites in its list of hits. The link then has a label added to it reading, "This website may damage your computer."

Google's security experts have sorted out some 12 million websites from an index containing billions of websites for closer scrutiny. Google found that around 1 million of those "short-listed" websites actually contained malware. Google says that its analysis of this sample population indicates that roughly a tenth of a percent of all websites are affected, with webmasters not even being aware they are spreading malware in most cases.

An analysis of the locations of the hacked websites revealed that most of them were from China, the US, Germany, and Russia. The same can be said for the geographic distribution of servers from which contaminants are downloaded.

In addition, Google also provides users with common tips on how they can protect themselves from drive-by downloads: install all updates, enable the automatic Windows Update function, and use an up-to-date virus scanner. Google also recommends that operators of websites follow the proposals of StopBadWare.