StopBadware.org - exposing malware

[eyes-open]

Another potentially useful bookmark ?

A free website (StopBadware.org) launching Wednesday plans to provide a list of programs that contain spyware and other malicious software. It will also identify companies that develop the programs and distribute them on the Internet.

The above was taken from:-

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/co...e_x.htm?csp=34

The initiative is being run by Harvard and the Oxford Institute and is backed by high-tech heavyweights including Google and Sun Microsystems. Consumer Reports' WebWatch is serving as a special adviser.

stopbadware.org

I dont really like the term "badware" and they use it repeatidly.. theres no such term as "goodware" being widely used so why do they do it. It's a nice idea though.

[thebigdintx]

i think it's a good idea (the coallition to fight "badware"), but so far, after spending who knows how much on research,,,their reccomendation page says stuff like,,use adaware, microfoft antispyware, spybot search and destroy, etc. .......i think most of us already came up with that stuff on our own! i guess it's a good "all-in-one" stop for information for people though who don't know anything about protecting their computer.

thats not enough to use adaware, s&d, M$ Antispy... what about a firewall, antivirus, and anti trojan?

also read their discusson group. http://groups.google.com/group/stopbadware

[thebigdintx]

Originally Posted by Grandenuts

thats not enough to use adaware, s&d, M$ Antispy... what about a firewall, antivirus, and anti trojan?

sorry, that wasn't a complete list, just a few examples...i added in "etc."

[ErikAlbert]

I better visit StopBadware.org next year. It's too early to evaluate this website.

[eyes-open]

Although the site is up, they're not really launching properly until Wednesday.

I had, from the initial description, thought of the site as being somewhere you can go and check out software you weren't sure of.

From their site

How do I know if an application is badware before I download it?

Check StopBadware.org: Soon after our initial launch in January, we will be issuing our first of many reports to come on good and bad applications. Get in the habit of checking our site before you download software, and if you find that we’ve issued a report on an application, then you can use that information to make an educated decision.

There's potential for a great resource - depending I suppose on their ability to deal with the possible threat of litigation ? There are some big names associated with this 'project'. I'm assuming not only their software researchers, but also their lawyers will have an opinion before they put someone on the 'bad' list.

[ErikAlbert]

How do I know if an application is badware before I download it?

Check StopBadware.org: Soon after our initial launch in January, we will be issuing our first of many reports to come on good and bad applications. Get in the habit of checking our site before you download software, and if you find that we’ve issued a report on an application, then you can use that information to make an educated decision.

Sounds good in theory, but this is a VERY HUGE JOB, because there are thousands and thousands of softwares on the internet.
And not only the badwares, but also the goodwares.
And for EACH software an evaluation report.
And all that world-wide.
And keep it UP-TO-DATE, because software changes all the time.
And keep people enthousiastic enough to continue.

It's possible as long it lasts