Google has added a new section to its Transparency Report focused on data from its Safe Browsing programme, which identifies unsafe websites and lets both users and webmasters know when their online security is at risk.
The Safe Browsing programme began in 2006 and, according to Google software engineer Lucas Ballard writing on the Google Blog, this programme is currently flagging up to 10,000 suspect websites a day.
This information is shared by Google with other browsers, meaning it contributes to keeping about 1bn users safe online.
Flagged sites are those suspected of containing malware or having been designed to acquire an unwitting visitor’s personal information (phishing).
Details from the Safe Browsing programme have now been added to Google’s Transparency Report.
The number of users receiving browser warnings when they attempt to visit flagged sites spiked this month to almost 90m per week when a campaign targeting vulnerabilities in Java and Acrobat Reader infected more than 7,500 sites.
Significant attacks such as this, as well as peaks caused by improvements to the Safe Browsing team’s detection algorithms, are documented in the report, which also contains a Malware Dashboard that lets users see from where these unsecure sites originate.
For example, in Ireland, 8pc of 15,186 sites scanned were found to be hosting malware.
For webmasters who find out that their site has been hacked, Google provides them with instructions on how to address this issue.
