Microsoft has just changed the way phishing and malware software are given as a warning to users on the Bing search engine. The search will now give users a detailed and specific problem present on every suspicious website that users might visit. The search engine has always delivered malware alerts to its users, but it was not as detailed as they have made it now.
The new update gives users an understanding of each and every security breach that might happen if they visit the page they are going for. It also gives webmasters an insight into why their sites were flagged, and they can address issues and problems in a much better way from there. The update is there to pinpoint the bad websites, the phishing websites which are fake sites created in order to look like they are real so that they can use them to trick users to steal personal information from users who might feel like the site is real.
When users click on phishing sites, they will receive alerts from the search engine which notifies them of the dangers which are associated with the website they are visiting. Users can choose to continue to proceed to the website anyway or rather choose another option, which is that Bing suggests.
Webmasters on the another hand can keep up to date with all the security flaws that are in their systems by looking at the dashboard. After they do a clean up of the sites, they can ask for another review so that they can get on the blacklist of the phishing sites.
Microsoft appreciates the difference between the malicious sites which instantly affect computers upon visitation and those that might contain some malicious and harmful web pages. The previous generic warning which was presented to users only indicated safe websites from the bad ones.
The updated alert now reads like this, ‘Warning! This site might lead you to malicious software that can harm your computer.’ Users are then given the option to choose whether they want to continue to the site which was flagged or if they want to choose an alternative website to visit.
This kind of update brings even more clarity for users as they can now differentiate between the various dangers posed on different websites. Additional information will also be available on why the various websites are being flagged.
Webmasters who want to see what the problem is, can go and click on Additional Details which will give them detail on the links which would lead to the malware. Users will continue to the warning until the bad links are removed. Microsoft said that they knew that not all sites are intentionally harmful and with this update they were addressing exactly that.
As always, don’t forget your VPN, whether it’s searching through an engine or just randomly exploring the internet.
