The latest trend of security threats against Internet users employs software products which pretend to be security tools that help rid your computer of spyware. In a new video series, WOT shows what can happen to your computer if you visit a risky or dangerous site. In the first of these video presentations, you will see examples of online scams and malware threats in action, satisfying your curiosity while keeping your computer safe.
New York, NY (PRWEB) September 17, 2008
Fake anti-malware software, marketed under hundreds of different names, scares users by giving false spyware alarms and then tries to deceive them into paying for removal of non-existing malware. The goal of these criminal software makers is to make people pay for the "full" version of their bogus anti-malware product and to collect financial information that can be used for phishing. The fake security product often installs malicious software to download itself or executes other unwanted actions. The user is shown fake messages such as, "Warning! Your computer is infected with spyware", followed by a promise that the chargeable version of the tool will remove this non-existing threat. These tools are promoted using hundreds of different names, such as XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009.
"Web of Trust offers Internet users a common platform for sharing their experience with websites and companies, making Web 2.0 work for a safer Internet," said CEO Esa Suurio, from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City this week.
WOT, Web of Trust, provides Internet users with preventive protection against online threats. The WOT security add-on warns users about dangerous and suspicious websites to help them avoid spyware, browser hijacking, identity theft, phishing and other Internet scams. Website rating information is updated continuously by the user community and numerous trusted sources, such as listings of malware and phishing sites. The free security add-on works with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers and can be downloaded at www.mywot.com.
Name: Esa Suurio, CEO
Phone: +358 40 716 9301
Address: Against Intuition, Inc.: Italahdenkatu 27 A, 00210 Helsinki, Finland
Email: esa.suurio @ mywot.com
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Helsinki, Finland, June 18, 2008
Websites offering adult content are the single most significant security threat for Internet users, comprising 31% of dangerous websites. Corporate and home users face an increased risk from web-based security threats such as spyware, viruses, browser exploits and phishing attacks when visiting adult sites.
The WOT, Web of Trust study of 19 million sites covered by the website reputation database was conducted from March to May 2008 and focused on dangerous sites (1 in 20 sites). The key finding revealed that sites containing pornography are the biggest threat for companies and individuals with a potential for financial and data loss as well as computer and network damage. Other dangerous sites were those that offered software (26%) and entertainment (14%) such as games, videos, and music. The main vehicle of attack is a permanent website, unlike the temporary sites used in phishing attacks carried out with the aid of fraudulent email messages. Dangerous sites usually remain operational for months or years, attracting millions of visitors and causing them damage.
"Visiting the red light district of the Internet makes the user vulnerable to spyware, viruses and leakage of confidential information which can cause significant damage," said Esa Suurio, CEO of Against Intuition Inc., the company that supports Web of Trust. “Given the size of the problem there has been surprisingly little debate on the topic. Perhaps the suffering parties, individuals and companies, hesitate to express their complaints in public.”
Employees who use company computers, either in the office or remotely, to access inappropriate sites, put their company at risk by introducing malware, viruses and spyware which can cause a security breach in the organization. The potential for damage is enormous, from inside and outside their firewalls, considering that confidential data can be stolen by keyloggers and tracking cookies, a common form of malware used by porn sites.
Ninety percent of school-age children have viewed porn online, most while doing their homework. Children can inadvertently access pornography by innocently mistyping or using popular search terms, landing on misleading URLs and from misuse of brand names by those intentionally exposing them to porn. Unsuspecting victims can easily be fooled by drive-by downloads containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites exposing their computer to malware. Once compromised, home computers are vulnerable to browser exploits and other security risks.
In order to improve the protection from threats associated with adult content websites, the WOT database has been enhanced with double the coverage of pornographic sites. WOT has information on nearly 1 million sites that are rated poorly for child safety. The month's long project was made possible by using a crawler created by WOT engineers to find the relationships and interconnectedness between sites with adult content. Sophisticated algorithms were used to filter out non-adult content and ensure accurate results. The Porn Links Galaxy photo set includes graphics designed to show the magnitude of links from one porn site to many others, sometimes numbering in the thousands. http://flickr.com/photos/mywot/sets/72157605676861378/
(Statistics derived from http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html and http://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/article/102)
Web of Trust is a people-driven security tool that warns Internet users about dangerous and suspicious websites. WOT has hundreds of thousands of users and safety ratings of 19 million websites, including nearly 1 million sites that are unsafe for children. WOT works with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers and is a free download. www.mywot.com
Against Intuition Inc. focuses on developing and providing software and services for the WOT community and promotes the community's goals to make the Internet safer. For further information, see about us
Images of sample screen prints, company logos, and photos of key personnel: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mywot/sets
http://technorati.com/blogs/tag/mywot
Name: Deborah Salmi
Phone: +358 40 735 6640
Address: Against Intuition Inc., Itälahdenkatu 27 A, 00210 Helsinki, Finland
Email: deborah@mywot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/deborahsalmi
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/debsalmi
Name: Esa Suurio, CEO
Phone: +358 40 7169301
Address: Against Intuition Inc., Itälahdenkatu 27 A, 00210 Helsinki, Finland
Email: esa.suurio@mywot.com
Web site: http://www.mywot.com
Blog: http://www.mywot.com/blog
Helsinki, Finland, May 21, 2008
WOT, a free browser security tool that helps individual Internet users surf safer by warning about dangerous websites, is releasing a Colorblind Accessible version of the popular add-on. With this new version, Web of Trust opens the door for 7% of the population, who wouldn’t benefit otherwise, to be warned about risky sites that could damage their computers and cost them money.
WOT, Web of Trust, complements traditional anti-virus software by providing Internet users an extra layer of preventive protection against spyware, spam, browser hijacking, phishing and other Internet scams. When searching with Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia and other popular sites, WOT adds a tiny color coded icon next to the Web link: green tells that the site is safe, yellow means caution, and red indicates potential danger. WOT has information on over 18 million websites. www.mywot.com
The new colorblind accessible version has been designed to provide people with color vision deficiency a useful tool for safer surfing on the Web. WOT safety rating symbols communicate clearly, but don’t dominate the search result view. With this new innovative software design WOT is pushing the boundaries to higher industry standards for accessibility.
“We have hundreds of thousands of users and we’re growing fast. It’s estimated that 1 in 12 men have a color vision problem, and 1 in 200 women, so statistically we already have tens of thousands of users who will benefit from this new version. Our goal is to make the Internet a safer place for everyone, so it was essential for us to make the extra effort,” says Esa Suurio, CEO of Against Intuition Inc.
“For us as a design agency it was an interesting challenge to work with a brand whose owners are ready to go the extra mile and change their website color scheme, symbol language, and even the logo on the new website reputation scorecard,” explains Ville Kolehmainen, Chief Creative Officer of Design Agency Fusion, the designer of the WOT graphical user interface.
Against Intuition Inc. focuses on developing and providing software and services for the WOT community and promotes the community's goals to make the Internet safer. For further information, see about us
Design Agency Fusion Ltd creates innovative solutions for turning today’s business challenges into tomorrow’s products and services. We help our customers rethink their business with our expertise in brand development, industrial and service design, and software development.
For further information on Fusion, contact Ville Kolehmainen, CCO, Design Agency Fusion.
Phone: +358 50 386 5093, email: ville.kolehmainen@fusion.fi, www.fusion.fi
A WOT demo video shows how WOT works in practice: http://www.mywot.com/demo
Watch the video about the colorblind accessible version at
http://www.mywot.com/blog/5/74
Listen to a conversation about the design of WOT's colorblind accessible version at
http://www.mywot.com/blog/5/74
Images of sample screen prints, company logos, and photos of key personnel: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mywot/sets
Find blogs about WOT: http://technorati.com/blogs/tag/mywot
Name: Esa Suurio CEO
Phone: +358 40 7169301
Address: Against Intuition Inc. Italahdenkatu 27 A 00210 Helsinki Finland
Email: esa.suurio@mywot.com
Web site: http://www.mywot.com
Blog: http://www.mywot.com/blog