What’s ‘WOT’? - it’s a free site advisor
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.
WOT is not the only site advisor service available.
In fact, I was surprised when I visited the WOT site and saw what the users were talking about. For one thing, it was evident that a lot of internet users consider a site advisor to be a very good first-line-of-defence for internet security.
Some users talked about having three or four site advisor services running on their computers.
Now for me, if I were using a Windows PC to browse the internet, I would take a different approach to internet security. I would be looking for a reputable anti-virus brand that also supplied a whole internet security suite.
I would also want to use more than one anti-spyware tool. So I can understand the WOT users who keep more than one site advisor running when they use the web.
They reason that no single site advisor service knows everything about all the websites. So it’s a good idea to employ more than one.
When I first started this website I wrote a page about safe browsing and web use. I did intend to say something there about using a site advisor. But, as I thought about this topic, it expanded until I couldn’t see how I would start and finish it (while being brief and keeping everything simple).
But here I am now re-visiting the topic of site advisors. Why? Because I received an email from the people at WOT, introducing themselves to me, in case my site visitors might be interested in WOT. They seemed like nice people: they responded to my email reply: it’s a free security service: have a look.
Find out about WOT at www.mywot.com.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
October 20th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Thank you for sharing WOT with your readers. As you recommend, WOT is perfect for a layered approach to Internet security.
WOT does warn people about risky websites, but WOT also shows people which sites are highly rated for trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety. This is important, especially now that we have entered what experts predict will be the busiest season ever of online shopping!
Safe surfing,
Deborah
Web of Trust
October 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Hi Deborah,
Thanks for noticing.
I had more to say about WOT but can only write so much in one night.
Particularly wanted to mention that the WOT news page informs people about the kinds of threats that exist on the web, and that the WOT blog is presently very active with discussion about staying safe with online shopping.
I feel the next blog post forming in my mind - unfortunately for me I am a slow writer.
Hi Allen,
Thanks for the RSS uptake: I’m flattered. Hope I can keep rolling out interesting posts.
Since I am a slow writer, I like to browse the (quality) article directories for helpful articles to post here. But they have to be well written, and hopefully belong under the description “explained simply”.
Hope investingworldtoday.com is working well for you. At this point there must be tens of millions of people wondering whether they should have given more thought to where they invest their savings and nest-eggs.
As I browse headlines on the net lately I see a lot of articles offering ‘hindsight’ - i.e. dealing with the topic: “What exactly has been going on all these years that led to the present condition?”
November 10th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Howdy Guru, what entice you to post an article on What’s ‘WOT’? - it’s a free site advisor? This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Sunday.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Actually, somebody from WOT contacted me. They suggested that visitors here might like to know about WOT.
That reminded me of something: I had been meaning to write a page about site advisors for a long time. The first one that I was ever aware of was MacAfee’s.
Hope your anti-spyware forum does well.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Actually, your post is good! But I always apply http://www.search-and-destroy.com, which works great to remove viruses, spyware.
Thanks!
November 19th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your message.
I certainly agree that using anti-spyware software is a good idea: it’s a way we can defend ourselves from the malware in circulation.
The aim of a site advisor service like WOT is to add ANOTHER LAYER of security.
As Deborah from WOT mentioned above, “WOT is perfect for a LAYERED approach to Internet security”.
The idea that ‘prevention is better than cure’ is the modern wisdom about PC security. E.g. anti-spyware tools are mainly aimed at preventing malware from getting onto our computer;
most modern anti-virus software concentrates a lot on preventing any virus (worm, trojan etc.) from ever arriving on our PC.
And we understand that we can be exposed to security risks on the web. So the idea behind WOT (and other site advisors) is that we can minimise risk if we NEVER VISIT any internet ‘bad neighbourhoods’ and malicious sites.
WOT is putting up the ‘Dangerous Area’ signs on the web.
When I first took an interest in computer security I was surprised by the number of people saying we should have up to three or four anti-spyware tools.
Then, when I first looked into WOT, I was surprised to see there were people using two or three site-advisor services at once.
I suppose those would be exactly the kind of people who would also have four anti-spyware programs, the best anti-virus software they can get, a firewall, and probably some extra anti-spam and email security tools as well.
Are people like that overly cautious? - excessively fearful?
I am constantly re-assessing this amorphous thing - the personal computer security thing.
Maybe those extremely-well-equipped people are the most realistic.
I say all this while thinking about ne of my recent posts:
http://computersecure.net/blog/a-season-of-relief-from-spam/
Some specific malware was mentioned in the post, i.e. the trojans Torpig and Sinowal (and Mebroot seems to belong to their family too).
I have been looking into those trojans. A representative of UK security firm RSA ranked them as the among “the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created”. They are thought to be responsible for stealing details of about half a million bank accounts.
I will post my news about them any day now.
It can take me a long time to write a post. I have to resist my natural instinct to complete a 10,000 word essay every time. I have only spent about 16 hours on it so far - so obviously it is far from ready for publication.
But here are some things I have found out so far about these nasty trojans.
1.
This set of trojans, Torpig, Sinowal and Mebroot - and their evolving variants - can be very good at hiding. Not all anti-spyware software will even detect them.
2.
They may use rootkit techniques (the name ‘Mebroot’ is a bit of a give-away there): so, even if you think your anti-spyware software has detected and removed them, they might be back again after you reboot.
3.
Even if your security tools detect those trojans you may still be a LONG way from eliminating them. (There will be more of the depressing news about that when I finish my post about it.)
When I think about those sophisticated trojans it makes me suppose that those extremely security-conscious people might be the ones with the best grasp on reality.
July 18th, 2009 at 4:40 am
I never heard about this site. Thanks for sharing:-)