We'd like to express a heartfelt thanks to Adobe's Brad Arkin, Mozilla's Johnathan Nightingale, and the many people who observed and contributed to yesterday's web chat. The topic, applications' role in protecting users from badware, proved interesting and engaging. You can read the transcript of the chat here.
We hope to do more of these web chats in the future. What topics would you like to see covered?
Badware often installs itself by taking advantage of bugs or exploits in software on the user's computer. While some of these exploits are in the operating system or default web browser, badware increasingly is targeting other applications and browser plug-ins.
What role can and should these applications—and their developers—play in protecting users from badware? Join Brad Arkin, Adobe's director of privacy and security, and Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's head of Firefox development, for a free moderated web chat next Thursday.
Title: Applications' role in protecting users from badware
Date/time: Thursday, August 26, 1-2 pm EDT
URL: http://www.stopbadware.org/events/apps-web-chat
Cost: Free! No preregistration required.
We hope you'll join us on the 26th for what promises to be an informative and interesting discussion!
As StopBadware and the environment in which we operate evolve, we continually evaluate where to focus our resources and attention. Over the next couple of months, we'll be making a few changes that reflect our current priorities. Hiring a "raconteur," or communication specialist, is one such change. This will allow us to work more closely with the community, our industry partners, and our other constituents to ensure that effective techniques for protecting users from badware reach the greatest possible audience.
Another change is that we'll reduce—for now—our emphasis on technical research and "deep-dive" analysis of badware sites. In place of a dedicated research function, we'll create a new, broader role that includes a bit of data sifting, along with hands-on systems work, testing, documentation, and more. (Job posting coming soon.)
Finally, we'll be introducing more events, like our upcoming web chat, that bring people together to discuss and share ideas about how best to protect users from badware.
With these changes, along with our continued work assisting webmasters and our data providers, we believe that StopBadware will be in a great position to expand our impact and make the Internet safer for all of us.
Save the date! On Thursday, August 26, from 1-2 pm EDT, StopBadware will host a web chat on the topic "The role of third-party applications in protecting users from badware." The featured "speakers" will be Brad Arkin, director of privacy and security at Adobe, and Johnathan Nightingale, head of Firefox development at Mozilla.
More information will follow soon. Meanwhile, if your company is interested in sponsoring this event, please let us know!
StopBadware is hiring! If you know someone looking for a full-time communications job here in Harvard Square, be sure to refer him/her to the job description.
A study released today by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) indicates that most Americans are genuinely concerned about online safety and security. Furthermore, according to the study, they recognize their responsibility to contribute to the Internet's overall security and are willing to take steps in that direction.
The biggest obstacle, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the lack of clear, concise instructions on what users should do to protect themselves. This is an area in which we, as an industry, have to improve. When you combine the complexity and diversity of available technologies with a lack of consistency around messaging, terminology, and visual symbols, it's no wonder that consumers are feeling confused.
The upcoming National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign, which the NCSA and APWG are spearheading, should be a step in the right direction. It promises a unified messaging campaign to increase awareness nationwide, and perhaps even internationally. Of course, if this survey is any indication, this will be a challenge, as the issue isn't so much awareness of the problem, but rather awareness of the solution.
Over the coming months, StopBadware will be working with industry partners to help them do their part to protect consumers from badware. Part of this, undoubtedly, will be consumer education. Just as we (and, by extension, our partners like Google and Firefox) now offer webmasters specific tips on finding, removing, and preventing badware on their websites, we need to work together to present clear guidance for users on how to protect their computers, their handheld devices, and their online information.
We are pleased to welcome Chinese security firm NSFOCUS as a new data provider! NSFOCUS joins Google and Sunbelt Software in feeding our Badware Website Clearinghouse with updated information about URLs they have discovered to be bad. Like all of our data providers, NSFOCUS will participate in our independent review process.
We are particularly excited to work with NSFOCUS because their team's extensive knowledge will give us insight into the often opaque world of Chinese networks and hosting providers.
NSFOCUS's press release about the data provider arrangement can be found here.
StopBadware is pleased to welcome Matthew Shanley, our new lead developer! As we mentioned previously, our current lead developer, Brandon, will be heading off soon to tortue himself for three years as a law student.
Matt joins us from Constant Contact, where he worked on their web development team. He holds a Master’s of Fine Arts in Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a Bachelor’s of Science in Electronic Media, Art, and Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and also attended Cornell University. He's also an all-around cool guy, and we're glad to have him on the team!
Wear jeans. Write code. Fight viruses. Get home in time for dinner.
Come join StopBadware in an epic battle against viruses, spyware, fake anti-virus apps, and other badware. There are no sword fights involved (sorry), but on the plus side, writing code is far less likely to result in a flesh wound. The code you write will take the data we collect about badware, remix it into useful knowledge, and put that knowledge into the hands of the people best able to decide how to use it. The pen is mightier than the sword, indeed!
StopBadware is a pretty great place to work. Jeans are standard attire, and there are even opportunities to telecommute. We share a big, open office in Harvard Square with folks from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society (from which we spun off) and the Public Radio Exchange team. You’ll find lots of developers and other fun, geeky people around. Our partners include some companies you may have heard of—Google, PayPal, and Mozilla—which gives us street cred, as well as opportunities to interact with a bunch of cool people.
We are a small team, and until we grow a bit, you’ll be the only full-time developer (except perhaps for a short overlap with our current lead developer). We will at times bring in contractors and interns to complement your skills and provide additional development bandwidth to complete projects. We don’t want to put you out on the battlefield all alone, after all!
StopBadware is a non-profit organization, but don’t let that dissuade you. We offer a fair salary and a solid benefits package (incl. health, dental, and 401k). Perhaps more importantly, we offer the opportunity to get paid to learn, have a good time, and make the Internet safer!
If all of the following apply to you, maybe you should apply for the job:
To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to developer@stopbadware.org.
[Updated 5/10/10: Revised job description.]
StopBadware announced today the launch of StopBadware Stories, a project to collect and share stories about the effects of badware on people’s lives. The project is part of an effort to raise awareness of badware as a problem that affects, and is affected by, individual Internet users.
StopBadware Stories is an extension of our BadwareBusters.org online community. The site now allows users to submit stories combining text, images, and video. Visitors can browse, rate, comment on, and share each others’ stories. Authors are asked to agree to a Creative Commons license that allows their stories to be remixed, reused, or redistributed for non-commercial use.
Have you had an experience with badware that you would like to share? Or would you just like to read others’ stories? Check out the site at http://badwarebusters.org/stories. Want to keep posted as new stories are added? Subscribe to the RSS feed.
[Edit 4/22: Fixed broken link.]
