Google Chrome is making the web a safer place

INTERNET GIANT Google is experimenting with a real-time alert system that should prevent users of its Chrome web browser from stumbling down bad Internet alleys and downloading malicious materials.

The firm is using data from its Safe Browsing API to produce a database of web badness that it will use to leap out in front of web surfers, wave its arms, and scream 'Nooooooooooooo!'.

Moheeb Abu Rajab of the Google security team said, "Safe Browsing has done a lot of good for the web, yet the Internet remains rife with deceptive and harmful content."

According to Rajab, and anyone else that has held a mouse and explored the Internet, it is easy to find websites that promise one thing but deliver another. Although some websites might not be a security risk in themselves, many often encourage users to download something that is, he added.

"It's easy to find sites hosting free downloads that promise one thing but actually behave quite differently," he said. "Such sites usually don't attempt to exploit vulnerabilities on the user's computer system. Instead, they use social engineering to entice users to download and run the malicious content."

In order to protect its users against these attacks Google has added a feature to the Chrome web browser that will display a warning if they attempt to download a suspected executable. Google is starting with Windows executables, as those comprise the majority of malicious files on the web.

Although currently only a small number of Google's users are getting the feature, the firm plans to include it as standard in its next stable release of the Chrome browser. µ