Google threat analysis selectively applied

[Kyle Maxwell]

IIRC Google happened to run across it, and they spend a lot of time
(and money) trying to detect bad ads, but it's certainly not
foolproof. The arms race continues. There are many areas where we
can't really consider Google one of the "good guys" (insofar as that
label means anything), but fighting malware is an area where they
certainly seem to be on the side of good.

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Michael Nelson <nelson_mikel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> A friend of mine, not a security jock, recently needed to cleanse her system
> (computer system, that is). She was advised to download Malwarebytes.  So
> she went to Google, and selected the top hit.  It had the pale green
> background that indicates (to those who know) that it was a commercial hit.
> Of course, she did not know that, but so what?  She merrily clicked on it.
> It's Google's top hit, right?  Must be well-vetted, safe, etc.
>
> The install led her through all sorts of other installs, and the end result
> was that she had a quite old version of Malwarebytes, and loads of adware on
> her computer.  She needed a very thorough cleaning then, to get rid of that
> stuff. Hope there's no malware left. Sheesh.
>
> The point is that Google was boasting recently about its wonderful machine
> learning that, unprompted, detected bogus used car ads in China.  It's
> perfectly clear that they could check the nasty Malwarebytes repackager that
> paid them.  Pretty poor behavior on Google's part.
>
> Mike



-- 
@kylemaxwell