"Google has created one of the most powerful search tools in the history of Web humanity. One of its goals along the way was to archive all of human knowledge. Another was to not be evil.

But the company discovered that at the intersection of archiving all human knowledge and not being evil is malware. In its pursuit of archiving the Web, Google has inadvertently become a tool for discovering and deploying malware. Now Google wants to turn the tables on malware and wants you (yes, you, good reader) to report malware to Google when you find it.

"Currently, we know of hundreds of thousands of Web sites that attempt to infect people's computers with malware," Google developer Ian Fette wrote in a blog post. "Unfortunately, we also know that there are more malware sites out there. This is where we need your help in filling in the gaps."

Google's plea for assistance follows an incident earlier during the week when security firm Sunbelt Software identified thousands of search terms that led to malware. The company didn't only point out sites that discussed malware, but also actual sites hosting drive-by code, whereby the simple act of visiting the page could be enough to infect a user's computer. The sites identified by Sunbelt have now been purged from Google's index. "

Article Link: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3714131