Who we are
StopBadware makes the Web safer through the prevention, mitigation, and remediation of badware websites. Our work protects people and organizations from becoming victims of viruses, spyware, scareware, and other badware.
StopBadware is the only not for profit organization focused on protecting the public from badware websites. From our start as a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, we have been led by top thinkers in the fields of security and Internet policy. From a Board of Directors that engages at the highest levels of corporate, public, and Internet policy, to a small but highly skilled staff committed to protecting the Web and its users, we bring a diversity of expertise and perspectives to our work. That work is supported by partners who demonstrate their security leadership by engaging with StopBadware—and with each other—to build a safer Web.
How we help
StopBadware employs three main strategies to drive positive change in the ecosystem:
- Encouraging and supporting website owners, particularly individuals and small businesses, in protecting their websites from compromise and remediating their compromised sites.
- Engaging Web hosting providers and other intermediary service providers in prevention, mitigation, and remediation of badware websites within their zones of control.
- Facilitating data and knowledge sharing that support the first two strategies.
Since our launch as a standalone organization in 2010, these strategies have allowed us to:
- provide over 500,000 website owners with guidance on how to remediate their compromised websites and prevent future attack.
- serve nearly 10 million Google Search and Firefox users with content about how to mitigate their risk of badware infection.
- process over 40,000 independent reviews for websites blacklisted by our data providers.
- ensure that millions of websites will, if compromised, receive appropriate mitigation and remediation attention, thanks to their hosts’ participation in the We Stop Badware™ Web Host program.
Find out more about what we do and how to get involved.