NEWS CATEGORIES:

NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>
MEET THE EDITORS >>

Find us on Google+

Home > News > Microsoft > Windows Live

December 4th, 2008, 10:49 GMT · By Marius Oiaga

Live Search Fighting the Malware Plague

Adjust text size:

Microsoft's commitment to offering end-users protection from malware does not stop with the promise of the free codename Morro antivirus planned for mid-2009. In this regard, the company has tweaked Live Search, enabling the search engine to prevent access to websites hosting malicious code. The addition of malware warnings is not synonymous with the complete disabling of potentially harmful links, users being given the option to access any URL, regardless of whether it is harmful or not, as long as they make the informed decision to disregard the risks.

“Live Search is proud to announce that, starting today, we are taking action against this plague. As Live Search crawls the web, we assess whether a page contains any malicious elements or exhibits any malicious behavior, and then flag questionable pages with a warning message,” revealed Christian Seifert, software design engineer, Live Search Anti-Spam & Anti-Malware Team.

Clicking on a disabled link will deliver a pop-up message window informing the user of the reason why access is blocked, along with the possibility to obtain additional information. Still, the extra data is not associated with the specific blocked content, but with general guidelines for malware. The popup warning message is also the place where Microsoft provides a functional link to websites flagged as malicious.

The Redmond giant informed that even reputable websites could find themselves blocked in Live Search. Such a scenario was related to hacked sites used by malicious third parties to spread malware. “In recent years, threats coming from web pages have significantly increased, from malicious programs hosted on web pages, to downloads that manipulate your computer and steal your personal information. In the past, these threats mainly came from questionable websites, but today even reputable sites can turn bad, which means that everyone is at risk for malware,” Seifert added.

FILED UNDER:

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

1,262 hits · Link to this article · Print article · Send to friend · Subscribe to news

MUST-READ RELATED ARTICLES:

Microsoft Scrutinizing 2009 Gaming Content

Live Cashback 'Cashed Out' This Black Friday

Search Smackdown: Live Search 1.1 Billion vs. Google 8 Billion

New Live Search Webmaster Center Tools Sniffing for Malware

Microsoft Translator Goes Live

READER COMMENTS:

No user comments yet.

Be the first to express your opinion!

SUBMIT PROGRAM \| ADVERTISE \| GET HELP \| SEND US FEEDBACK \| RSS FEEDS \| UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE \| ROMANIAN FORUM
© 2001 - 2012 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Softpedia® and the Softpedia® logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.	Copyright Information \| Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use