Google Bolsters Confidence in its Search Security

On acquiring security company GreenBorder Technologies, the search giant Google is trying to fulfill its purpose to uphold reliability on its browser-delivered applications owing to the prevalence of increasing threats from malicious software.

With this acquisition the security company based in California will find its technology on secure connections included with Google's own security services. This would improve protection of users from the continuous online threats of malware, spam and other mail-delivered attacks.

There has been no official announcement by Google about the new deal so far. In fact people came to know of it from a message posting by GreenBorder Technologies on its company site. It said that Google Inc. acquired GreenBorder Technologies. Further, GreenBorder would continue to be available for its customers throughout till the end of their existing subscription.

It was helpful for Google to make such a move in the background of the increasing dependence of people on the Internet, said Eric Maiwald, senior analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. Computer Weekly published Maiwald's statement on June 1, 2007.

Google is worried about malware getting loaded in systems when users surf on their browsers. Currently, this is the main vector for delivering malware. In May 2007, Google itself estimated that malware infects 1 in 10 websites. The problem could impair Google's image as also its users. After reports that several sponsored links of Google lead the surfers to malware-distribution websites dilutes Google's efforts to establish itself as an enterprise with sufficient resources to compute. While Google has been able to better the quality of its search hits, it has not been successful in solving the battle between instantaneous revenue and customer well being.

It was only in May last that search practice was found to be insecure. This followed from a report by McAfee's Site Advisor that search engines were habituated to return threatening sites. Soon before the report, Google had added to its Webmaster Quality Guidelines an alert that people should not construct pages that drop viruses, trojans or similar badware.

Google started dealing with online security publicly in January 2006 by being partner in launching StobBadware.org, an online Watch Group.

Related article: Google Rectifies Gmail flaw in Three Days

» SPAMfighter News - 6/13/2007