Blacknight Join The Fight to Stop The Spread of Badware

Aug. 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Irish domain registrar Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com) have joined the We Stop Badware program as part of their continued efforts to create a safe online environment.

Longtime advocates of the creation of a more secure Internet, Blacknight continually look for opportunities to become actively involved in ensuring an optimal user experience. In partnering with StopBadware  in the We Stop Badware program, Blacknight continue their mission to educate users on the dangers of malicious software.

Caitlin Condon of StopBadware states: "We at StopBadware congratulate providers like Blacknight who have signed up for the We Stop Badware™ Web Host program and pledged to be proactive about stopping badware and protecting customers. We're happy to recognize hosting providers who choose to adhere to our best practices and take steps to create a safer Internet for everyone."

Badware sometimes referred to, as malware is software specifically designed for criminal or disruptive purposes. Badware can be used for spam, phishing, identity theft and network attacks among other things. The Stop badware website explains: “Some badware is not malicious in its intent, but still fails to put the user in control. Consider, for example, a browser toolbar that helps you shop online more effectively but neglects to mention that it will send a list of everything you buy online to the company that provides the toolbar. In this case, you are unable to make an informed decision about whether to install or use this software.

Another example is when you install a piece of software, and that software installs additional software that you weren’t expecting. This can be especially troubling if the additional software does something undesirable or doesn’t uninstall when you remove the original software.”

To date, 850,828 badware URLs have been reported by StopBadware’s data providers.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight explains: “We are excited to be a part of the We Stop Badware campaign. Cybercrime is on the rise and preventing the spread of malicious software is a huge step towards reducing incidents of online crime. Stopping badware is integral to creating an environment of trust online. In addition, our technical team have developed a range of tools and internal policies to deal with issues when they occur on our network and we also subscribe to Google's Safe Browsing Alerts.”

Neylon continues: “it is important for users to be aware that badware exists and to be cautious about what entities they provide with sensitive information.”

Users can do their part to avoid falling victim to badware by paying attention to the sites they provide with sensitive or financial information and decline to provide that information if a familiar site or URL looks amiss.

To learn more about stopping badware, or to report an incident, visit http://www.stopbadware.org/home/index
To learn more about We Stop Badware visit
http://blog.blacknight.com/stopping-badware.html

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Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.