ComputerSecure Blog

As I mentioned in a previous reply to a post, I had more to say about WOT than I managed to include in one post.

For one thing, I wanted to mention that the blog at WOT currently has a lot of discussion about keeping safe when shopping online.

That’s a thing to be aware about at this time of year.

And another thing was that the news page at WOT is very informative about what kinds of threats are out there on the interwebs.

Here is an exerpt from WOT’s news: my reasons for mentioning it are below.

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Epidemic of Fake Anti-malware Products Threatens Internet Users

The latest trend of security threats against Internet users employs software products which pretend to be security tools that help rid your computer of spyware. In a new video series, WOT shows what can happen to your computer if you visit a risky or dangerous site. In the first of these video presentations, you will see examples of online scams and malware threats in action, satisfying your curiosity while keeping your computer safe.

New York, NY September 17, 2008
Fake anti-malware software, marketed under hundreds of different names, scares users by giving false spyware alarms and then tries to deceive them into paying for removal of non-existing malware. The goal of these criminal software makers is to make people pay for the “full” version of their bogus anti-malware product and to collect financial information that can be used for phishing.

The fake security product often installs malicious software to download itself or executes other unwanted actions. The user is shown fake messages such as, “Warning! Your computer is infected with spyware”, followed by a promise that the chargeable version of the tool will remove this non-existing threat. These tools are promoted using hundreds of different names, such as XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009.

“Web of Trust offers Internet users a common platform for sharing their experience with websites and companies, making Web 2.0 work for a safer Internet,” said CEO Esa Suurio, from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City this week.

How to get protection from these threats:

WOT, Web of Trust, provides Internet users with preventive protection against online threats. The WOT security add-on warns users about dangerous and suspicious websites to help them avoid spyware, browser hijacking, identity theft, phishing and other Internet scams. Website rating information is updated continuously by the user community and numerous trusted sources, such as listings of malware and phishing sites. The free security add-on works with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers and can be downloaded at www.mywot.com.

More articles are on the news page at WOT.
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Now there was something about this that got my interest.

This is a bit round-about, but just bear with me for a moment.

I occasionally do some ‘keyword research’ about internet security and computer security. (That’s what we website owners do when we want to know what people are searching for on the internet.)
A couple of years ago I made my first pages here about spyware and anti-spyware software.
My keyword research showed me that a lot of people search using terms like ‘best antispyware’, ‘top antispyware’ and so on.

Nobody was searching for the terms that occurred naturally to me: e.g. ‘quality antispyware’, ‘reputable antispyware brands’, trusted antispyware software’.

Now this is all very well: people don’t want to spend all day evaluating different software and comparing lists of features just so they can get some protection from spyware.

So people think ‘Okay, I’d better get that spyware protection issue sorted out: just tell me, Favourite Search Site, which is the Best One.’

But, in reality, searching for the ‘best antispyware’ or ‘best antivirus’ is not necessarily going to lead anybody to a trustworthy piece of security software.

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WOT (Web Of Trust) is a free site advisor service you can use.

And what is a ’site advisor’?

The purpose of a site advisor is to alert you about bad websites. That includes websites that are known to engage in suspicious activity, to harbour spyware, to spread malware or are known to be in bad internet neighbourhoods.

So WOT is a tool that you can install. (It is, to be specific, a browser add-on.)
Then while you are browsing the web WOT will alert you to sites that are known to be unsafe. For example when you search at Google WOT will alert you if any sites among the search results are known to be unsafe.

But don’t bother reading a long-winded explanation from me about how it works in your browser: you can just watch their demo video.

WOT gets information about suspicious websites from a variety of sources, the kinds of services that monitor the internet and keep lists of sites where there is spyware or viruses, or that are associated with phishing, spam or fraud. (These watchdog services include PhishTank, TRUSTe, hpHosts, DNS-BH Malware Domain list and Artists Against 419.)

But, in addition to that, WOT is also a “community-driven” security tool. This means that WOT users constantly report back to WOT about bad websites they encounter.

WOT is completely free to use.

The WOT project itself is a big endeavour and there are people, including the government of Finland, investing money to make it happen. No doubt they expect their investment will pay off eventually. But they are not asking users to pay for the service.

See www.mywot.com.

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