Deceptive Site Ahead: Google to warn about fake buttons

[Batu69]

Google announced yesterday an addition to the company's Safe Browsing technology (Deceptive Site Ahead) that will flag sites with deceptive buttons to users of the company's Chrome web browser and in other programs that make use of Safe Browsing.

 

Deceptive buttons, either in the form of advertisement displayed on a page or embedded directly on a page by the owner of the site, come in many forms.

These buttons may display actions to download, update, install or play on a site they are displayed on, and are usually accompanied by a notification-type message that makes the action seem important.

 

Basic examples are actions to install software to play media on a page, or download buttons that don't download the software hosted on the site but unrelated third-party offerings.

Deceptive Site Ahead

The new "deceptive site ahead" message appears in the Chrome web browser instead of web pages if Google considers the site to be "social engineering" due to the use of content that tries to deceive users who visit it.

 

 

The message reads:

Quote

Deceptive site ahead.

Attackers on [site url] may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information (for example, passwords, phone numbers, or credit cards).

 

A click on details displays an option to override the warning and continue to the site.

 

Google mentions two specific scenarios in which sites may be flagged as deceptive:

Quote

• Pretend to act, or look and feel, like a trusted entity — like your own device or browser, or the website itself.
• Try to trick you into doing something you’d only do for a trusted entity — like sharing a password or calling tech support.

 

While some webmasters use these types of deceptive practices on purpose, others may be affected by it indirectly though advertisement displayed on their sites.

Google has created a support page for webmasters that offers instructions on how to troubleshoot the issue and resolve it so that the "deceptive site ahead" warning notification is removed from the site.

 

Webmasters whose site's were flagged for containing social engineering content may start the troubleshooting by opening the security issues report on Google Webmaster Tools. There they should find listed information such as sample urls that were flagged.

 

The actual removal may be problematic, as webmasters need to find the source of the deceptive content and remove it. Afterwards, they need to request a review of the site which Google claims may take between two and three days to complete.

 

Article source

[jayesh30202]

Google targets Fake Download and Play Buttons

 

 

Google says it will go to war against the fake 'download' and 'play' buttons that attempt to deceive users on file-sharing and other popular sites. An extension of its 'Safe Browsing' initiative launched eight years ago and tweaked last November, the moves will see users increasingly warned when Google and Chrome users are faced with deceptive practices.

 

The aim on most file-sharing and streaming sites is for users to either download or play content, whether that’s the former to their hard drive or the latter in a YouTube-style window.

 

It should be straightforward but all too often users are presented with an array of buttons, all of which claim to either ‘download’ or ‘play’ when in reality only one actually does anything useful. In conjunction with suspect advertisers, it appears that some site operators are happy to send users down a rabbit hole of frustration.

 

Users pressing the wrong buttons (and there are millions of them) often end up on dodgy sites pushing unwanted software or offering get rich quick schemes, subscription traps, or worse. But now, thanks to Google, their prevalence might be somewhat curtailed on file-sharing sites and other popular locations such as Facebook.

 

 

 

According to a new announcement from the company titled ‘No More Deceptive Download Buttons’, Google says it will expand its eight-year-old Safe Browsing initiative to target some of the problems highlighted above.

 

“You may have encountered social engineering in a deceptive download button, or an image ad that falsely claims your system is out of date. Today, we’re expanding Safe Browsing protection to protect you from such deceptive embedded content, like social engineering ads,” the company says.

 

Those receiving protection from Google and its Chrome browser will be presented with a message similar to the one below.

 

 

 

In order to qualify as part of a social engineering attack, content embedded in webpages must demonstrate a key feature – an attempt to lure the user into a false sense of security by masquerading as something they would ordinarily trust.

 

For example, content falling foul of Google’s rules would be that which acts or feels like a user’s own device or web browser, or even pretends to be part of the website the user is on. Content that tries to trick the user into doing something it would only normally do for a trusted third-party (such as sharing a password or calling tech support) will also be targeted.

 

In our recent article detailing sites that employ some of these practices, we highlighted those that mislead the user into thinking they need to update software (such as Flash or a media player) to play a video.

 

 

Google says that these kinds of techniques will also become a target for its systems.

 

 

“Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning,” Google explains. “We’ll continue to improve Google’s Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safe online.”

 

In 2015 Google took action against major torrent sites on at least two key occasions, once in July and again in October. The warning messages were triggered by Google’s “Unwanted Software” scanner which flags websites that pose a potential danger to visitors. The issues were remedied when the sites weeded out some bad advertisers.

 

Google’s campaign will not just affect file-sharing sites though. The same kinds of techniques are being used all over the web and the tech giant hopes to get involved no matter where they appear.

 

SOURCE

[DKT27]

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