Bing Malware Filter Blocks Malicious Code Download Websites

Microsoft's security efforts do by no means stop at producing client- and server-based products for consumers. The company's search engine is also involved in the overall efforts associated with keeping users safe. One aspect of the software giant’s commitment to protecting users is the Malware Filter of the Bing search engine. The filter is designed to block websites that serve malicious code to unsuspecting victims, by masquerading malware as a range of genuine software. Sasi Parthasarathy, Bing Index Quality Group, revealed that one illustrative example of how Bing Malware Filter worked to increase security for users was the combing of results that would otherwise point to sites offering rogue security products.

“In response to this growing threat, Bing has invested in ways to identify and filter sites that download malicious software. We call this Malware Filter. This feature compliments our pre-existing Drive-By-Download detection by identifying and removing social engineering malware sites from our results. We can block new threats from existing malicious sites, even if those threats are not yet blocked by traditional anti-virus or anti-malware signatures,” Parthasarathy added.

Microsoft explained that attackers could make malicious software pass for almost everything. Users might, in this regard, think that they are downloading an antivirus or antispyware solution, or free videos, codecs & images, utilities and tools, online greeting cards and even games and instead get their machines infected with anything from viruses to spyware, but also adware, Trojans, Backdoors, Dialers, Worms, Downloaders, Password stealers and mMonitoring software.

“From our analysis on sites blocked by our malware filter, a significant portion of the malware sites are fake anti-virus product sites. This effort is going to protect our users in a significant way as we have already pointed out that number of searches for anti-virus products in various forms is quite significant,” Parthasarathy explained. “For comprehensive protection from malware, we highly recommend that users also install traditional anti-virus products and keep them up to date.”