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By: Ben Lucier on February 8th, 2011
Posted in: General
Tags: best practices, Malware, RFC, StopBadware
Comments: 0

A short while ago, I wrote about our friends at StopBadware and their initiative to draft a document that covers best practices when dealing with malware of all kinds.

The support received been fantastic and they’re now on the second draft of the RFC. This is an important issue that affects all of us. If you have something to say, StopBadware would really appreciate your feedback before this Friday (Feb 11).

From the StopBadware blog:

About two weeks ago, we put out an initial request for comments on a public draft of our new best practices. This RFC was met with insightful, eminently practical advice from our expert working group and the security community. After incorporating some of the suggestions from these groups, we have a second draft of the Practices ready for review and comment. The second public draft of StopBadware’s Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports is available here in doc andpdf format.

This is intended to be the last draft of the Practices; we’ll be accepting comments until Friday, February 11, 2011. The final best practices document will be publicly available within a few weeks.  Thanks to all those from our community and the security industry who have given us such dedicated thought and creativity during the course of this project!

You can join our mailing list here.

About StopBadware

StopBadware originated at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society in 2006. In 2010, they spun off as a non-profit organization with the support of Google, PayPal, and Mozilla. Their board of directors, chaired by PayPal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett, also includes Vint Cerf (Google), Esther Dyson (EDventure), Paul Mockapetris (Nominum), Mike Shaver (Mozilla), and our executive director, Maxim Weinstein.

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By: Ben Lucier on January 26th, 2011
Posted in: General
Tags: Malware, StopBadware
Comments: 0

The Internet can be a dangerous place, even for the professionals who live and breath it. Imagine the frustration felt by website owners after realizing their site has been compromised and attempts to infect its visitors, many of them potential customers.

StopBadware, a non-profit organization, founded at Harvard University in 2006, helps stop badware: viruses, spyware, and any other software that fails to respect a user’s choice about how his or her computer or network connection is used. From the StopBadware website: “Badware is a threat to the open Internet, one of our greatest political, economic, and cultural shared resources. As an independent non-profit organization, our focus is singular: how to protect users effectively and responsibly from this threat.”

Request for Public Comments (deadline Jan 31, 2011)

StopBadware, is seeking comments from web hosting providers, security experts, and other interested parties on the first public draft of their new document: StopBadware’s Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports.

Additional context for the development of this document can be found at: http://blog.stopbadware.org/2011/01/20/request-for-comments-on-new-best-practices. You can download the draft of this document in MSWord and PDF format below.

• Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports
  (PDF | MS Word)

Comments or marked-up versions of the document may be e-mailed to contact <at> stopbadware <dot> org. The deadline for comments on this draft is Monday, Jan. 31, 2011.

About StopBadware

StopBadware originated at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society in 2006. In 2010, they spun off as a non-profit organization with the support of Google, PayPal, and Mozilla. Their board of directors, chaired by PayPal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett, also includes Vint Cerf (Google), Esther Dyson (EDventure), Paul Mockapetris (Nominum), Mike Shaver (Mozilla), and our executive director, Maxim Weinstein.