Google includes malware data in Transparency Report

Google’s Transparency Report now includes data from its Safe Browsing program that it began in 2006. The program is the brainchild of the search giant’s security team, and its work involves finding and flagging dangerous websites. Simply put, each time unsuspecting users log on to malware-ridden websites on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers, Google uses this Safe Browsing technology to post warnings, so as to discourage users from accessing these sites. All of this new information can now be accessed in the report under “Safe Browsing”.

New data available in Transparency Report (Image credit: Getty Images)

In addition to facts, Google’s Malware Distribution Map in the new section is an eye-opener too. The heat map displays the percentage of sites scanned by Safe Browsing, and the data has been categorised using an autonomous system (AS) – there are thousands of these on the Internet.

Google scanned several thousands of websites for malware in countries around the world. In India, Google found 14 percent of 25,935 sites to be hosting malware, while it found 2 percent of 14,226,639 sites hosting malware in the United States. In Russia, Google used Safe Browsing to find 4 percent of 108,510 sites hosting malware. You can view the map here to see the percentage of scanned sites in other countries.

Safe Browsing looks through billions of URLs every day looking for malicious sites, and Google says they come across thousands of them. Many of these malicious sites are in fact, legit sites that have been compromised. Once these sites are detected, Google displays warnings. Malware and phishing scams are among the biggest threats on the Internet. Not only can they disrupt the normal functioning of your system, they can leave you with virtually nothing in a matter of hours.

The Google Transparency Report is already a solid indicator of the Internet-government relationship globally. The report sheds light on the number of government requests that Google receives for user data and those approaching them for content removal.