Yahoo teams with McAfee to offer search results security

[evilfantasy]

Hope this works better then the Google and StopBadware.org disaster.

Yahoo Inc. and McAfee Inc. are joining to offer alerts about potentially dangerous Web sites alongside search results generated at Yahoo.com.

With the new security feature -- slated to take effect Tuesday -- people who search the Internet using Yahoo will see a red exclamation point and a warning next to links McAfee has identified as serving dangerous downloads or using visitors' e-mail addresses to send out spam.

Dangerous downloads can include "adware," which shows unwanted advertisements; "spyware," which secretly tracks users' keystrokes and other actions; and other malicious programs that can give criminals control over users' computers.

Yahoo has decided to simply nuke the worst offenders -- sites that attempt "drive-by downloads," or trying to automatically install malicious code on visitors' computers by exploiting coding flaws in their Web browsers.

If McAfee has identified a site as having employed such tactics, Yahoo users won't see the link at all.

Full read

[Broni]

McAfee Site Advisor works fine for me...

[Aegis]

Agreed. 

Good move on McAfee's part, though -- integration past the browser level.

[evilfantasy]

It's not like site advisor. it will actually block the sites from search results.

[Broni]

I wouldn't like it. I don't like babysitting, and something taking control of my computer, instead of me.

[patio]

I wouldn't like it. I don't like babysitting, and something taking control of my computer, instead of me.

You just THINK you are in control of your machine.....Welcome to the MatriX ! !

[evilfantasy]

The Google and StopBadware.org experiment that was very similar to this didn't last long. Too many legitimate sites were blocked from users. If a page or website had ever been hacked it was blocked from access because it 'could' be harmful. How many MS pages have been hacked? Think about that and you will see how wrong this could go - and in a hurry.

[Broni]

How true. Even with McAfee Advisor, I found number of pages, marked yellow, because someone posted bad comment, or because of some other minor incident. That's why, I rather see them all, marked this way, or another, and I can evaluate myself, if it's dangerous, or not.
Good to have some initial warning, though, but not by blanking it totally.

[evilfantasy]

I agree Broni. That's why I don't use any of the custom Hosts files. They block too much. I usually can tell when I am venturing on to a shady site, so,  if I choose to go there....

[Broni]

Agreed again

[michaewlewis]

I think I may have just seen the results of the partnership. Now when you search with yahoo, it tells you that the site is a potential risk.
Here's an example of what it looks like.

2 potentially harmful websites are marked on this page.

Unsolicited Emails
Use caution in providing your email address. It
may result in unsolicited or spammy emails.
More details

SearchScanBETA powered by McAfeeSite
owner support

 or you can see for yourself.


I don't think that is too intrusive.... do you? It still allows you to click the link.

[evilfantasy]

Intrusive? Not at all. You may not be seeing all of the results though.

Yahoo has decided to simply nuke the worst offenders

[michaewlewis]

Does that go beyond the options to change the settings to
* Never display websites indicated as potentially harmful
* Alert me to websites indicated as potentially harmful
* Do not alert me to websites indicated as potentially harmful

[evilfantasy]

So are they automatically blocking the results as indicated in the quote, or actually giving you an option.

Seems to be a little conflicting. Is it "Never display/Alert me" or "Simply nuke"?

[michaewlewis]

http://search.yahoo.com/preferences/preferences?page=search_scan
here's the settings page. wysiwyg.