If the email messages I get from my Grandma who is (despite an inability to travel) in London and lost all her money, my younger brother (a personal trainer) who wants me to check out a site selling Coach Handbags, or the misspelled instant messages I get from a former manager that just needs me to check out an image on a phishy URL, then people are very susceptible to fumbling on the web. While experienced users can typically recognize a scam, virus, or phishing site, many denizens of the web are still learning the hard way. To make this process less painful, Google’s upcoming version of Chrome will be adding a malicious download warning.
The concept of this new form of malware protection is simple. When you try to download a file, Google checks its URL against a list of malicious sites that have been discovered through the Google Safe Browsing API. If there’s a match, Google gives a warning to users stating that the file seems to be malicious, and asks the user whether or not they want to continue the download. Since the Safe Browsing API has been developed over the last five years, the list of malicious websites is extensive.
Google hasn’t released a specific date for when the malware download warning will be in place, but they intend implementation on the next “stable version.” Given the six week release cycle of Chrome, that should mean we’re roughly a month away from this extra layer of protection – assuming everything goes according to plan. Users eager to try this feature early can look to the experimental Chrome and Chromium release channels, where a “small-scale experimental phase” has begun. Google also reminds concerned webmasters that any reports of malicious content can be disputed through the Google Webmaster Tools.
[via the Chromium Blog]
