Bing has improved its site safety features adding a new page that explains why a given site may be unsafe for visitors. Previously, when a searcher was presented with a potentially dangerous website in the search results, they would be shown a warning that indicated that the site could be dangerous; however the warning did not include any background information or context. The new Bing Site Safety Page builds on this and offers more in-depth information about why a page could be dangerous, giving tech savvy users the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether the site is worth visiting. After seeing the information on the page, a user may choose to disable javascript in their browser, turn off certain plugins, or swap to a different browser entirely. The page gives a lot of information, including the reason that the page is flagged (for example, it could contain malicious javascript, references to a malware network, or a suspected drive-by attack), and how recently the URL was scanned, as well as the date that the infection was first noticed, and the date of the most recent detection. This information may help a user to make a more educated decision as to whether the infection has likely been removed, meaning that the site is now safe to visit. Bing has made it clear that they have even more improvements planned for the future. The current arrangement does not make it clear whether the issue that affected the site is a widespread one or simply a transient issue, and Bing aims to fix that by improving the page to show the total number of malicious URLs detected on the site, the type of malware that has been found, and the warning trigger rate for the website. Bing provides some useful tools for webmasters and SEO workers in the Bing Webmaster Tools service, including reports that will help webmasters to identify malware issues, and a form that can be used to send a malware re-evaluation request once any issues have been resolved. Malware can come from a compromised server, a poorly secured content management system, or a compromised advertising platform as well as many other potential vectors for infection. If your site ends up serving ads, investigate it carefully and make sure that all issues are resolved before you submit a request to both Bing and Google.
01st August 2014
