Google Online Security Blog: junio 2012

Security Blog

The latest news and insights from Google on security and safety on the Internet

Safe Browsing - Protecting Web Users for 5 Years and Counting

19 de junio de 2012

Posted by Niels Provos, Security Teammalware and phishing protection

We protect 600 million users through built-in protection for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, where we show several million warnings every day to Internet users. You may have seen our telltale red warnings pop up — when you do, please don’t go to sites we've flagged for malware or phishing. Our free and public Safe Browsing API allows other organizations to keep their users safe by using the data we’ve compiled.

We find about 9,500 new malicious websites every day. These are either innocent websites that have been compromised by malware authors, or others that are built specifically for malware distribution or phishing. While we flag many sites daily, we strive for high quality and have had only a handful of false positives.

Approximately 12-14 million Google Search queries per day show our warning to caution users from going to sites that are currently compromised. Once a site has been cleaned up, the warning is lifted.

We provide malware warnings for about 300 thousand downloads per day through our download protection service for Chrome.

We send thousands of notifications daily to webmasters. Signing up with Webmaster Tools helps us communicate directly with webmasters when we find something on their site, and our ongoing partnership with StopBadware.org helps webmasters who can't sign up or need additional help.

We also send thousands of notifications daily to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) & CERTs to help them keep their networks clean. Network administrators can sign up to receive frequent alerts.

Phishing

Faster - Many phishing webpages (URLs) remain online for less than an hour in an attempt to avoid detection.

More diverse - Targeted “spear phishing” attacks have become increasingly common. Additionally, phishing attacks are now targeting companies, banks, and merchants globally (Chart 2).

Used to distribute malware - Phishing sites commonly use the look and feel of popular sites and social networks to trick users into installing malware. For example, these rogue sites may ask to install a binary or browser extension to enable certain fake content.

(Chart 1)

(Chart 2)Malware

Legitimate websites that are compromised in large numbers so they can deliver or redirect to malware (Chart 3).

Attack websites that are specifically built to distribute malware are used in increasing numbers (Chart 4).

Drive by downloads

Spyware to gather information like your banking credentials.

Malware that uses your computer to send spam.

(Chart 3)

(Chart 4)How can you help prevent malware and phishing?

Don't ignore our warnings. Legitimate sites are commonly modified to contain malware or phishing threats until the webmaster has cleaned their site. Malware is often designed to not be seen, so you won't know if your computer becomes infected. It’s best to wait for the warning to be removed before potentially exposing your machine to a harmful infection.

Help us find bad sites. Chrome users can select the check box on the red warning page. The data sent to us helps us find bad sites more quickly and helps protect other users.