Wednesday, 27 December 2006

Is Malaware Behind Unsuspecting Sites?

Spyware and adware researcher Ben Edelman has wriiten in his report that Web sites with security certificates are not as safe as they claim to be. The sites that have the TRUSTe security Relevant Products/Services certificate are more likely to contain badware...

Spyware and adware researcher Ben Edelman has wriiten in his report that Web sites with security certificates are not as safe as they claim to be. The sites that have the TRUSTe security Relevant Products/Services certificate are more likely to contain badware than Web sites without any security certification, he writes.

Adware providers Direct-revenue and Webhancer are using TRUSTe certificates in order to form an image of trustworthiness Edelman claimed. The certificates maynot spell out the actual credibility of the site, he said.

Direct-revenue has been charged legally by the New York Attorney General for its adware software. Edelman alleged that Webhancer often is installed without the user's consent.

TRUSTe is a certification authority, an independent organisation that gives security certificates to Web sites. These certificates indicate that service adheres to certain privacy guidelines, allowing users to verify that they are on the Web site that they intended to visit.

The independent certificate authorities perform a background check to verify the identity of the Web site's operator and ensure compliance with the privacy standards. Web sites that meet the organisation's criteria are allowed to display the TRUSTe logo on their Web site.

In his study, Edelman compared TRUSTe certified Web sites with a list of known malware sites from McAfee's Siteadvisor product, a service that black-lists Web sites containing spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.