practices

practices

StopBadware to develop best practices for malware reporting

Posted on April 29, 2011 - 14:26 by ccondon

Last month, we released a set of best practices for hosting providers responding to malware reports. The best practices are intended  to address inconsistency within the industry about how to responsibly and effectively respond to malware reports; they lay out a high-level framework that web hosting providers of all sizes can follow. Today, we at StopBadware are pleased to announce that we have already begun to take the logical next step in helping to strengthen the Web ecosystem: developing a set of best practices for malware reporters. 

This second set of best practices will provide a high-level framework for reporting URLs that host, link to, or deliver malware. Developing best practices for malware reporters is a natural continuation of our work in the web hosting arena, and we expect this new best practices document to complement and enhance our best practices for web hosting providers. It’s our hope and expectation that this new effort will help security researchers and corporate IT departments communicate effectively and efficiently with hosting providers, site owners, and other relevant parties. We also expect the process of developing best practices for malware reporters to serve as a strong foundation for a new centralized reporting system we at StopBadware are planning to build.

 

Our best practices for web hosting providers were developed with the advice of an advisory working group that included representatives from top hosting providers, security companies, and policy organizations; this group ensured that the Practices were sensible and complete, but perhaps of even greater value was the discussion and collaboration that arose among the group’s diverse members as we worked to formulate the final document. Given the level of engagement and the quality of the discussion produced by our Web Hosting Working Group, it was an easy decision to assemble a second equally diverse working group to assist us in developing our best practices for malware reporters. We’ve already opened discussion with our Malware Reporting Working Group, and we look forward to listening to their insights over the next few months.

 

We’re extremely excited to be focusing on this project: it strengthens another crucial in the Web’s chain of trust, it encourages the high-level discussion we’re happy to be known for, and it’s a perfect example of the kind of collective action StopBadware’s mission is all about. We’ll likely be releasing public drafts of our best practices for malware reporters in the near future, so stay tuned or subscribe to get the latest updates and requests for comment.

Tags: 
best, malware, practices, reporting, stopbadware

Public release of StopBadware’s Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports

Posted on March 15, 2011 - 08:49 by ccondon

After several eventful months of writing, ruminating, revising, and listening to feedback from the security industry and our web hosting working group, we are proud to announce the public release of StopBadware’s Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports. We had some pretty lofty goals in starting this project: we wanted to address the hosting industry’s lack of consensus about how to respond to malware reports; we wanted to enable transparent, productive discussion among hosting providers, security researchers, and policymakers; and we wanted to come out of it all with a realistic, complete set of best practices that could be implemented effectively, whether by a small reseller or a large operator. Through a lot of hard work, and with invaluable insight from our working group and the community, we’re confident that our final best practices document achieves every one of those goals.

It’s unfortunately commonplace for malicious actors to create websites that seem legitimate, but that actually contain or link to malware. Oftentimes, the goal of these malicious actors is to spread malware by compromising other websites and infecting those sites’ visitors. Security researchers or concerned users routinely report these malicious sites to web hosting providers, but there can be a slew of questions and concerns surrounding response to malware reports, even when hosting providers have every intention of protecting their customers. Is the malicious URL in the report definitively within the provider’s zone of control? Does acknowledging a report carry legal implications for a hosting provider? What if the security researcher obtains new information and needs to follow up on the original report? StopBadware’s best practices provide a high-level framework for hosting providers who are committed to protecting their customers and acting as good Internet citizens; the Practices set universal guidelines for what steps hosting providers can—and should—take upon receiving a malware report.

We received a lot of enthusiastic participation while we were developing the Practices; likewise, we’ve received a great deal of support leading up to this public release, including and especially from some of the hosting providers who participated in our working group. We’re optimistic about the Practices’ potential to highlight the positive impact hosting providers can have when they commit to protecting users responsibly. And we’re extremely excited about the focus this project has brought to the fight against badware. We’d like to extend our most sincere gratitude to both our sensational working group and the community for the time, thought, and openness they dedicated to this project.

In addition to the best practices, we’ve created some extra materials to help web hosting companies understand and more effectively implement the Practices--all of which are freely available for your perusal.  We also have physical best practices packages for purchase; to support StopBadware’s Practices, check out a technician’s kit or  a larger team kit! StopBadware’s Best Practices for Web Hosting Providers: Responding to Malware Reports is available in full at http://stopbadware.org/home/webhost. You can read the full press release here.

We have several other significant projects in the works right now; you can expect to see much more from us in the coming months. Thanks for your continuing support!

 

 

**Update: We were remiss in not thanking Tucows for their support throughout this process and their help with publicity. Our apologies to Tucows--of course, you have our gratitude for everything you've provided during this project!

Tags: 
best, practices, stopbadware, webhosts