14 DAY TRIAL // Because Google is the best search engine on the internet, its links database is huge with a lot of websites that are updated hourly so it is very important for the company to verify the pages periodically to identify malicious content. Some time ago, the search giant made a partnership with StopBadware, a firm that fights against malware websites. As a result of the agreement, the search engine displays an alert when a user wants to visit a dangerous site saying that "visiting this web site may harm your computer!" This tool is quite efficient because there are a lot of Google users that aren't protected against this kind of threats while StopBadware's alert tries to protect them of dangerous content.
This is not the only tool developed by Google that was meant to keep the internet clean, the search giant designing a special Firefox extension that is now included in Google Toolbar. The Safe Browsing extension notifies you every time it identifies a phishing attempt, saying that you should avoid entering your private information. Some days ago, some users reported that the security tool provided by Google is not as useful as it is said because the extension tried to block a bank page that was 100 percent clean.
Although the ways for getting your website banned for malicious content are many, Google's employees are trying to protect you by posting some tips on the official blog of the company. It was already known that your website will be removed from Google's index if it's flagged as malware, but now the search engine recognizes that their services can be wrong in the scanning process for dangerous objects.
"If your site has been flagged for badware, we let you know this in webmaster tools. Often, we find that webmasters aren't aware that their sites have been compromised, and this warning in search results is a surprise. Fixing a compromised site can be quite hard. Simply cleaning up the HTML files is seldom sufficient. If a rootkit has been installed, for instance, nothing short of wiping the machine and starting over may work. Even then, if the underlying security hole isn't also fixed, they may be compromised again within minutes.
We are looking at ways to provide additional information to webmasters whose sites have been flagged, while balancing our need to keep malicious site owners from hiding from Google's badware protection. We aim to be responsive to any misidentified sites too. If your site has been flagged, you'll see information on the appeals process in webmaster tools," Phil Harton, Google employee, said in a blog post.