eclectica
2007-03-04, 17:42
When you conduct a search on the internet using Google you get back results, listing various websites. Google has partnered with a site StopBadware.org, to give you a warning "This site may harm your computer" for some sites. Google "tatom ochy" to see it yourself.
Google explains the following when you click on the link:
Why do some of my search results say "This site may harm your computer?"
This warning message appears with search results that we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer. We want our users to feel safer when they search the web, and we're continuously working to identify such dangerous sites and increase protection for our users.
Malicious software is often installed without your knowledge or permission when you visit these sites. Some examples of malicious software include programs that delete data on your computer, steal personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers, or alter your search results. For more information on these types of sites, please visit http://www.stopbadware.org/home/help
I am the owner of the site tatom.org which is listed there. To my knowledge there is no malware hosted on the site, and there is not even one one commercial. I became aware that tatom.org is listed there about a month ago, when StopBadware.org had 7,000 listings in their Badware Website Clearinghouse. Now it has 20,000 listings.
I wrote to StopBadware.org using their Request for Review form (http://www.stopbadware.org/home/review), asking for them to specfically tell me what or where they thought was "badware" on tatom.org. A few weeks later I received an email from Google addressed to the webmaster at tatom.org, which is not the contact email I used for my request for review from StopBadware.org. The email from Google said the following:
Subject: Malware notification regarding tatom.org
From: Google Search Quality
Dear site owner or webmaster of tatom.org,
We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be
infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page
to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.
Below is an example URL on your site which can cause users to be
infected (space inserted to prevent accidental clicking in case your
mail client auto-links URLs):
http://www.tatom .org/
Here is a link to a sample warning page:
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//www.tatom.org/
We strongly encourage you to investigate this immediately to protect
your visitors. Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious
software, in many cases the webmaster is unaware because:
1) the site was compromised
2) the site doesn't monitor for malicious user-contributed content
3) the site displays content from an ad network that has a malicious
advertiser
If your site was compromised, it's important to not only remove the
malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also
identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting
provider if you are unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a
resource page for securing compromised sites:
http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security
Once you've secured your site, you can request that the warning be
removed by visiting http://www.stopbadware.org/home/review and
requesting a review. StopBadware and Google will jointly investigate
and reply to you with our findings. If your site is no longer harmful
to users, we will remove the warning.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team
Since I received no specific information, there was nothing I could do. The request for review was stonewalled by them. You can also submit a request for review to Google rather than to StopBadware.org. But you have to have a Google Webmaster Tools account with Google, which I didn't want to create.
I am not in the business of making money on the internet, and it doesn't bother me to lose traffic. People on the internet ought to be cautious about how much faith they put into such clumsy solutions. It reminds me of the color codes that Homeland Security uses to show the threat level of a terrorist attack. The inability of StopBadware.org or Google to write back to me telling me specifically where the badware was located on the site, indicates to me that they've lost control of their own project and it has grown too big. It is also useless if they can't tell people specifically where they think there is badware, because there is no specific information provided for the webmasters to fix their own sites.
Google explains the following when you click on the link:
Why do some of my search results say "This site may harm your computer?"
This warning message appears with search results that we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer. We want our users to feel safer when they search the web, and we're continuously working to identify such dangerous sites and increase protection for our users.
Malicious software is often installed without your knowledge or permission when you visit these sites. Some examples of malicious software include programs that delete data on your computer, steal personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers, or alter your search results. For more information on these types of sites, please visit http://www.stopbadware.org/home/help
I am the owner of the site tatom.org which is listed there. To my knowledge there is no malware hosted on the site, and there is not even one one commercial. I became aware that tatom.org is listed there about a month ago, when StopBadware.org had 7,000 listings in their Badware Website Clearinghouse. Now it has 20,000 listings.
I wrote to StopBadware.org using their Request for Review form (http://www.stopbadware.org/home/review), asking for them to specfically tell me what or where they thought was "badware" on tatom.org. A few weeks later I received an email from Google addressed to the webmaster at tatom.org, which is not the contact email I used for my request for review from StopBadware.org. The email from Google said the following:
Subject: Malware notification regarding tatom.org
From: Google Search Quality
Dear site owner or webmaster of tatom.org,
We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be
infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page
to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.
Below is an example URL on your site which can cause users to be
infected (space inserted to prevent accidental clicking in case your
mail client auto-links URLs):
http://www.tatom .org/
Here is a link to a sample warning page:
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//www.tatom.org/
We strongly encourage you to investigate this immediately to protect
your visitors. Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious
software, in many cases the webmaster is unaware because:
1) the site was compromised
2) the site doesn't monitor for malicious user-contributed content
3) the site displays content from an ad network that has a malicious
advertiser
If your site was compromised, it's important to not only remove the
malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also
identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting
provider if you are unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a
resource page for securing compromised sites:
http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security
Once you've secured your site, you can request that the warning be
removed by visiting http://www.stopbadware.org/home/review and
requesting a review. StopBadware and Google will jointly investigate
and reply to you with our findings. If your site is no longer harmful
to users, we will remove the warning.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team
Since I received no specific information, there was nothing I could do. The request for review was stonewalled by them. You can also submit a request for review to Google rather than to StopBadware.org. But you have to have a Google Webmaster Tools account with Google, which I didn't want to create.
I am not in the business of making money on the internet, and it doesn't bother me to lose traffic. People on the internet ought to be cautious about how much faith they put into such clumsy solutions. It reminds me of the color codes that Homeland Security uses to show the threat level of a terrorist attack. The inability of StopBadware.org or Google to write back to me telling me specifically where the badware was located on the site, indicates to me that they've lost control of their own project and it has grown too big. It is also useless if they can't tell people specifically where they think there is badware, because there is no specific information provided for the webmasters to fix their own sites.