Sunbelt Formalizes Ties With Stopbadware
Windows security software maker Sunbelt has signed on to play a more active role in the Harvard-based Stopbadware.org effort, which already boasts some powerful friendships in the form of its work filtering Web search results with Google -- in addition to being backed by Harvard Law School, Oxford University and Consumer Reports WebWatch. The nonprofit anti-malware, adware and spam project, which is also aligned with Mozilla, PayPal and Trend Micro, announced that Sunbelt specifically agreed to be one of its data partners and contribute its own threat assessment intelligence to the Stopbadware Clearinghouse, which aims to catalogue as many threats as possible. Stopbadware Manager Maxim Weinstein was quick to point out in his blog that Sunbelt Software Director of Malware Research, Eric Howes, has served as an advisor to the effort since it's early days. However, the new pact marks the first time that Sunbelt has officially committed to participating in the project. Sunbelt will provide research data collected via its ThreatTrack malware and URL filtering feeds. "Sunbelt Software has always encouraged a collaborative approach to addressing the malware problem," Howes said in a statement. "We are pleased to formalize our ongoing relationship with StopBadware and support the important work it does in educating the public and the industry," he said. Spurred by the agreement, StopBadware launched a new report interface integrating the new Sunbelt Software data to its searchable Badware Website Clearinghouse, which is made availble to other security researchers, law enforcement officials and Web site owners.
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Comments (3)
Badware Problem
The reason why this virus comes is only because of the either of the following:
You have a weak or vulnerable code on your website which is exploited by a hacker.
Your FTP password is weak and generally a dictionary word which is cracked by brute force attempts.
Posted by stopbadware | July 1, 2009 12:17 PM
While this collaboration sounds like a nice baby step forward for increasing all of our security, these types of partnerships almost always come with hiccups that end up halting the progress the companies would have achieved if they had stayed separate. Do you have any updates as to how the partnership has worked out thus far?
Posted by Security Software | November 3, 2009 11:59 AM
Collaboration is always a good thing in these matters, at least on the surface. The caveat is that so many times we see these companies take steps backwards in their progress while they try to integrate each others solutions into a single product or even a single thought process. Imagine if MS and Apple tried to put together their idea of the perfect PC. It might end up as a great product, but the time it took to suss out everyone's ideas and implement them in a matter that was fair to all parties, could not only take a very long time, but could potentially prevent the companies from making the advancements and issuing the quality products that they may have if they had continued to work alone.
Posted by Malware | November 3, 2009 12:46 PM