For the last five years, Google has been silently monitoring the web for fishy behavior with its Safe Browsing effort. Odds are the only time you even notice anything is happening is when you get a notice that the site you are about to visit could harm your computer. Google has posted some details on the true scale of the Safe Browsing program, and it’s pretty impressive.
For starters, 600 million users are protected from known phishing and malware sites by Google’s Safe Browsing API, which is built into Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Google adds an astonishing 9,500 websites to the list of malicious sites each and every day. Sometimes these are sites that have been exploited without the knowledge of the owner, and sometimes they’re pure attack sites.
When Google detects a website that appears to be serving malicious code, it preemptively blocks it. The webmaster will be contacted to rectify the problem, if indeed the site is innocent. Google encourages website owners to sign up for its webmaster tools to facilitate faster communication in the event something suspicious is found on their site. A well-meaning site can get back up on Google in a few hours if everything checks out.
All the experience Google has had detecting these rogue websites makes for some fascinating data. Phishing sites, for example, often exist for less than an hour before closing up shop to avoid detection. A startling number of phishing sites are also hosted in the US. The number of straight-up attack sites is much higher than it was when Safe Browsing started, but fewer innocent sites have been compromised as of late.
In closing, Google reminds us not to click through those scary warning screens, which are scary for a reason. Even sites you trust could be inadvertently hosting malicious code in a third-party ad of some sort. Google’s Safe Browsing is a commendable effort, but the bad guys aren’t going to let up anytime soon.