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Working together to fight malware

Posted by Panayiotis Mavrommatis, Google Security Team We recently began a series of posts related to online security that focus on how we secure information (with posts <a title="like" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-google-keeps-your-information.html" id="qyc5">like</a> <a title="these" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-log-data-to-help-keep-you-safe.html" id="kb5c">these</a>) and how you can protect yourself online. Here's the latest in the series.- Ed. As part of this ongoing security series, we'd like to talk a little about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware" id="lase" title="malware">malware</a>. The term malware, derived from "malicious software," refers to any software specifically designed to harm your computer or the software it's running. Malware can be added to your computer, with or without your knowledge, in a number of ways -- usually when you visit a website containing malware or when you download seemingly innocent software. It can then slow down your system, send fake emails from your email account, steal sensitive information like credit card numbers or passwords from your computer, and more. The conventional wisdom was that you could avoid malware by learning to spot sites that were created with the sole purpose of spreading it, and by staying away from other sites that might be risky. But <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-your-iframe-are-point-to-us.html" id="jddj" title="recent research">recent research</a> from Google suggests that an increasing number of malware attacks are taking place on sites you'd normally regard as safe or legitimate, but have actually been compromised. Google works closely with the <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/11/help-us-fill-in-gaps.html" id="kxrj" title="security community">security community</a> to <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/05/introducing-googles-anti-malware.html" id="oe4q" title="identify">identify</a> malware on the web and then <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/06/phishers-and-malware-authors-beware.html" id="qn3p" title="share">share</a> that information more broadly. We've set up a number of automated systems to scour our index for potentially dangerous sites, and we <a title="add a label" href="http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45449&topic=360&hl=en&sa=X&oi=malwarewarninglink&resnum=1&ct=help" id="v9:q">add a label</a> to those that appear to be a vehicle for malware. If you're searching on Google and click on a link that we've flagged, a warning page will appear before you move forward. We also <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=45432" id="am_8" title="notify webmasters">notify webmasters</a> if we discover that a site is no longer secure and provide a method for webmasters that <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-sites-been-hacked-now-what.html" id="ubgi" title="clean up their sites">clean up their sites</a> to <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/malware-reviews-via-webmaster-tools.html" id="bkdz" title="request a review">request a review</a>. And starting soon, we'll be providing more detail on sites that appear to be spreading malware, so users have a better sense of why we have flagged a given site and webmasters can more easily identify and correct issues on their sites. All this stems directly from our security philosophy: We believe that if we all work together to identify threats and stamp them out, we can make the web a safer place for everyone. Of course, we can't catch everything, so our users play a <a title="crucial part" href="http://www.google.com/contact/security.html" id="kp-b">crucial part</a> of this effort too. Below are a few tips that can help you reduce your chances of being affected by malware: <ul><li>Use anti-virus software. Most anti-virus software is specifically designed to find and remove harmful software on your computer. Be sure you have anti-virus software installed on your computer (you can get a free trial through <a href="http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&gl=us" id="a:vx" title="Google Pack">Google Pack</a> if you don't), keep it current, and use it to run frequent full-system checks.</li></ul><ul><li>Make sure your operating system and browser are up to date. Attackers typically target vulnerabilities in your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system" id="neqc" title="operating system">operating system</a> (OS) and your browser to install malware on your computer. OS and browser providers frequently release updates to close those vulnerabilities. Enable automatic updates for both your browser and your OS, and check for alerts to ensure you have the latest and greatest protection.</li></ul><ul><li>Be careful about what you download. While Google and everyone else in the online community is working hard to identify harmful sites, new sources of malware are emerging all the time. Whenever you're prompted to download an email attachment, install a plug-in, or download an unfamiliar piece of software, take a moment to think it through. You won't always be able to identify a risky download, but if you practice some reasonable caution, you'll be able to reduce that risk.</li></ul>If you come across a potentially dangerous site that hasn't already been flagged, please <a href="http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/">report it</a>. To learn more about malware and how to protect yourself, check out StopBadware.org's <a href="http://www.stopbadware.org/home/help" id="b5qc" title="tips page">help page</a>.

Working together to fight malware

Posted by Panayiotis Mavrommatis, Google Security Team We recently began a series of posts related to online security that focus on how we s...

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We can't wait for Earth Day

Posted by David Bercovich, Google Green Team On April 22nd, millions of people around the world will come together to celebrate <a href="http://ww2.earthday.net/">Earth Day</a> -- a commitment to taking care of our planet, and to fighting climate change. In anticipation of Earth Day, Googlers from many of our offices have been looking for ways to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability. We also want you to have more ways to support the goals of Earth Day, and to share ideas on reducing your own environmental impact. Here are a few to get you started: <ul><li>If you use Google Checkout to donate to a non-profit environmental organization on behalf of anyone you know, we'll generate a personal view of Google Maps that includes a marker representing your donation. The people you donate on behalf of will get an email about your contribution, and if they follow your example, their donation will be marked on your map as well. We'll connect the markers, so that you can watch how your generosity spreads as more and more people donate. Visit Checkout's <a title="Earth Day page" href="http://checkout.google.com/earthday/" id="uwke">Earth Day page</a> to learn more.</li></ul><ul><li>Hot on the heels of last week's <a href="http://www.google.com/transit" id="f:50" title="Google Transit">Google Transit</a> launch in <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-transit-arrives-in-chicago.html" id="r::k" title="Chicago">Chicago</a>, a whole <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-transits-early-bird-earth-day.html">new batch</a> of transit agencies have made their data available on Google Maps. From Lubbock, Texas to Walla Walla, Washington, people in communities across the country will now find it easier than ever to leave their cars at home.</li></ul><ul><li>I hope you'll take a moment to download the newest version of <a title="Google Earth" href="http://earth.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Earth</a>, which <a title="launched earlier today" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/whole-new-world-to-explore.html" target="_blank">launched earlier today</a>. While you're exploring its <a title="new features" href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/introducing-google-earth-43.html" target="_blank">fancy new features</a>, be sure to check out some of the latest Global Awareness layers (found in the left-side "Layers" panel) that celebrate the beauty and biodiversity on Earth, like <a href="http://www.arkive.org/" target="_blank">ARKive's</a> Endangered Species and <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/" target="_blank">Greenpeace's</a> Stop Climate Change. And I encourage you to visit the <a title="Google Earth Outreach Showcase" href="http://earth.google.com/outreach/showcase.html" target="_blank">Google Earth Outreach Showcase</a>, which features a number of environmentally-focused KMLs that can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth.</li></ul>Tell the world what you're doing for Earth Day (and beyond) by uploading a message to our<a href="http://www.google.com/earthday08"> Earth Day '08</a> site. Get together with friends, family or coworkers, grab a camera, and take five minutes to put yourselves on the map. From the everyday to the extraordinary, we want to hear about your plans to take on climate change and make our planet a greener place. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.com/earthday08/"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.google.com/earthday08"><img alt="Earth Day 2008" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189901037981795602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgc1sxacoSHUs_cW2etu0D326Cu2m-64kzdhGuVyWqVrd5aBS55HKlB1p1eS1XALNCfq-EXNIF1EVBvQElva-H8NbxDk5UoPM4kELHQt517Mna0gynT8Cvm6HXhGQhcxtUI73w86_Au_q/s320/EarthDay.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> </div>

We can't wait for Earth Day

Posted by David Bercovich, Google Green Team On April 22nd, millions of people around the world will come together to celebrate Earth Day -...

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A whole new world to explore

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth On the Google Earth team, we're big fans of Earth Day, so much so that we couldn't hold out until it arrives next week to release our latest labor of love: <a href="http://earth.google.com/" id="v0rt" title="Google Earth 4.3">Google Earth 4.3</a>. With this version, we have completely rethought how you might interact with the 3D world. We've redesigned the navigation to make it much easier to fly from the heavens down to the streets of your town. And with all of the great user-created buildings in the <a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=bd89a6376cd5d61bc8513927f8b58de3&ct=hpr1" id="ge4z" title="3d Warehouse">3D Warehouse</a>, we wanted to make it easy for you to get right up close to see the rich detail. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_AZVMEC2m4AQIWhJ-c_JmitSp7erOnB9h1efwtK8vaQi4F1aqykySMUtMdi4zbWew-fUsugC2YzbiIe-LxPZnydvn42ZgAcV13YHnxIiBRWKL_kTpb3sXwZ3xxXKcnUbKI1T4D8swyk42/s1600-h/4.3image.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189706304386602210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_AZVMEC2m4AQIWhJ-c_JmitSp7erOnB9h1efwtK8vaQi4F1aqykySMUtMdi4zbWew-fUsugC2YzbiIe-LxPZnydvn42ZgAcV13YHnxIiBRWKL_kTpb3sXwZ3xxXKcnUbKI1T4D8swyk42/s320/4.3image.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Here's a sample of what you'll find in this release: <ul><li>New navigation - We've improved the zoom control so you can swoop down from outer space to street level in a single seamless motion. And with the addition of the "look" joystick, you can look up at buildings or across a mountain range. </li></ul><ul><li>More, faster 3D buildings - It's more fun to navigate through a lot of new 3D content. Besides adding thousands of buildings contributed by people around the world, we've added dozens of photo-textured cities and towns in the U.S. and elsewhere. </li></ul><ul><li>Street View - The popular Google Maps feature makes its Google Earth debut.</li></ul><ul><li>Sunlight feature - Never seen the sunrise over the Alps? Now you can.</li></ul><ul><li>New languages - There are 12 new languages, including Danish, English (UK), Spanish (Latin American), Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.</li></ul>Check out the <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/introducing-google-earth-43.html">Lat Long blog</a> for all the details, or head over to our website at <a href="http://earth.google.com/">earth.google.com</a>. And stay tuned for more details about <a href="http://ww2.earthday.net/">Earth Day</a> coming soon.

A whole new world to explore

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth On the Google Earth team, we're big fans of Earth Day, so much so that we couldn...

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KML, the HTML of geographic content

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, KML Product Manager HTML has completely transformed our world. Through the web, a previously inconceivable amount of information is now just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks away. What makes this possible is the fact that web browsers, web servers, and many other pieces of Internet infrastructure all speak the same language. Because of Internet standards like HTML, any web browser can view any web page. Internet standards are what makes the web a flourishing marketplace. Today, a new standard was born: The <a title="Open Geospatial Consortium" href="http://www.opengeospatial.org/" id="pi6e">Open Geospatial Consortium</a> has announced its acceptance of KML 2.2 as an official OGC Standard. <a title="KML" href="http://code.google.com/apis/kml/" id="pj:f">KML</a> started as a file format for <a title="Google Earth" href="http://earth.google.com/" id="gh5v">Google Earth</a>, a way to save out the list of restaurants or parks or hiking trails that you might have drawn as a custom map. It's since matured into something much larger, and is supported on a wide variety of mapping platforms produced by a range of companies. You can even view KML on your <a title="cell phone" href="http://services.google.com/marketing/links/trekfan2006/" id="mxzf">cell phone</a>! There are tens of millions of KML files available online -- a testament to just how much user-generated content is now map-based information. Mapping has come a long way from the origami paper creations of the past. Our choice to give KML to the OGC is part of our strong commitment to open standards. It's our belief that KML's standardization will do much to make more geographic-based content accessible online. There's more on KML's standardization on the <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/kml-new-standard-for-sharing-maps.html">Lat Long blog</a>.

KML, the HTML of geographic content

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, KML Product Manager HTML has completely transformed our world. Through the web, a previously inconceivable am...

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Building software tools to find child victims

Posted by Shumeet Baluja, Research Scientist Since it was founded in 1984, the <a title="National Center for Missing & Exploited Children" href="http://www.missingkids.com/" id="olp8">National Center for Missing & Exploited Children</a> (NCMEC) has reported more than 570,000 child exploitation leads to law enforcement agencies and assisted with more than 140,900 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 124,500 children. The advent of the Internet has unfortunately provided child predators with a new avenue to exploit children. In August 2006, we <a title="joined" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/coalition-against-child-pornography.html" id="g6.a">joined</a> NCMEC's Technology Coalition Against Child Pornography, teaming up with other tech industry companies to develop solutions that hinder predators' ability to use the Internet to exploit children or traffic in child pornography. In an outshoot of that industry initiative, I discovered some other areas where I thought Google could help the staff at NCMEC. For instance, to date, NCMEC analysts have reviewed more than 13 million child pornography images and videos to assist law enforcement agencies working to identify and rescue children. This task has been time-consuming, and NCMEC analysts were simply getting overwhelmed by all of the data they had to sift through. One of our core strengths here at Google is our ability to manage and organize immense amounts of information -- whether it's text, image, audio, or video -- and make it more useful and accessible for users. As a member of Google's research group, I realized that NCMEC had an immediate need for some of our research-stage technology. They needed help organizing and making sense of the enormous number of images and videos sent to them every week through their <a title="CyberTipline" href="http://www.cybertipline.com/" id="mlhi">CyberTipline</a> and from law enforcement officers nationwide. So we went into overdrive. I recruited some fellow engineers to help me build tools that NCMEC might find useful. Throughout 2007, using our 20% time, we <a href="http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3644">created innovative software tools</a> to help NCMEC track down child predators through video and image search. With these tools, analysts will be able to more quickly and easily search NCMEC's large information systems to sort and identify files that contain images of child pornography. In addition, a new video tool we built streamlines analysts' review of video snippets. The keys here were organization, scalability, and search. In particular, the tools we provided will aid in organizing and indexing NCMEC's information so that analysts can both deal with new images and videos more efficiently and also reference historical material more effectively. We hope the tools we've built for NCMEC will help its analysts make the important and often time-sensitive work of investigating child predators faster and more efficient. For me, working with NCMEC provided an incredible opportunity. It allowed us to immediately deploy some of our latest research in image and video analysis in a real-world setting. On a personal note, I've been truly inspired by the entire NCMEC team's dedication and diligence in completing such a heart-wrenching mission. You always hope that your work will eventually be used do some good in the world, and this was an amazing chance to make that hope real by creating tools that have the potential to aid investigations of child predators, find child victims and reduce the flow of child pornography on the Internet.

Building software tools to find child victims

Posted by Shumeet Baluja, Research Scientist Since it was founded in 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)...

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Salesforce for Google Apps

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise A little less than a year ago, we <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/salesforce_alliance.html" id="xvmx">partnered with Salesforce.com</a> to create Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords. It combines Salesforce.com’s CRM applications with AdWords to make it easier for businesses to generate leads, track, and close them. Since then, people have offered up a constant stream of requests to streamline even more of the CRM process. At the top of list are everyday tasks like improved efficiency sending and sharing account emails, easier ways to create and share documents and presentations, and simpler ways to schedule meetings and events. To address these requests, we set out to collaborate on another product integration. Live today, we're happy to unveil <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/products/google/apps/">Salesforce for Google Apps</a>, a new product for all of those using Salesforce.com available at no additional charge. It brings the collaboration and communications features of Google Apps directly into the user experience of Salesforce.com, and is focused on streamlining the activities most frequently requested by our users. (There's <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2008/04/run-even-more-of-your-business-in-cloud.html">more detail</a> on our Enterprise Blog.) Here's a quick look at the problems we're trying to solve with Salesforce for Google Apps: <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pqe2eCtY4Pg&hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pqe2eCtY4Pg&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object> Regarding improvements, we'd like to remind developers that these new features -- as well as those announced today by our partners <a href="http://www.astadia.com/about/astadia_press_release-salesforce.com-google-products-launch.aspx">Astadia</a> and <a href="http://www.appirio.com/about/pr_products_041408.php">Appirio</a> -- were created using our respective open APIs. We share with Salesforce.com a commitment to make the web the best platform for application innovation. Thanks to everyone for your good ideas so far. We hope you'll continue to <a href="http://ideas.salesforce.com/popular/google">share your thoughts</a> about what you like and what can be improved.

Salesforce for Google Apps

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise A little less than a year ago, we partnered with Salesforce.com to cr...

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The Spelman College CS Olympiad

Posted by Marcus Mitchell, Engineering Director We're always interested in supporting computer science education, and in encouraging top talent from diverse backgrounds. Which is why we've just sponsored the Sixth Annual <a id="g.n9" href="http://www.spelman.edu/%7Esccso/" target="_blank">Spelman College Computer Science Olympiad</a> for the second consecutive year. In all, 16 teams from eight Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), or Association of Computer/Information Sciences and Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions (ADMI) participated. These teams competed in five computer science-related events. One of these was a <a id="jy-g" href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/" target="_blank">Google Gadgets</a> competition, where the assignment was to build an interactive, creative and useful Google Gadget. Students brought their semi-completed gadgets and got troubleshooting advice and tips at a hack session, where Googlers and students worked together into the night to perfect them. The following day, each team presented their gadget to our panel of three judges (myself and 2 other Googlers). We chose first, second and third place winners, whose gadgets will be uploaded to the <a id="djo:" href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open" target="_blank">iGoogle Directory</a> soon: <ul><li>First place: Morehouse College Team 2 (Lawrence Forrester, Kevin Walton, Mark Slade, Michael Davis) <a href="http://kevin.ultinets.net/gadget/hopstop/hopstop.xml" target="_blank"></a></li><li>Second place: Old Dominion University Monarchs (Duc Nguyen, Cesar Barbieri, Darrin Lee, Nicole Jackson)</li><li>Third place: Spelman College YOMamaBoards (Jonecia Keels, Jazmine Miller, Paige McReynolds, Arielle Baine)</li></ul>It was inspiring to see the energy, enthusiasm, and skill of these future computer scientists -- our congratulations to all the teams that participated. <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM_bvTMHQ6zdMvCoQDJ_ktwEuz_KgZ7v67TSC52DVp-YHWL_AlRUkhm36f58NmLd00wldn5Mepyd5F_fBDTDqCwoVk7oEEfW0AMeY-VANH3CVsDUW1LeMxiKlFSrln1o0bE6BH3bjj0uM/s1600-h/Hopstop+Gadget.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188143586822690706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM_bvTMHQ6zdMvCoQDJ_ktwEuz_KgZ7v67TSC52DVp-YHWL_AlRUkhm36f58NmLd00wldn5Mepyd5F_fBDTDqCwoVk7oEEfW0AMeY-VANH3CVsDUW1LeMxiKlFSrln1o0bE6BH3bjj0uM/s320/Hopstop+Gadget.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; width: 205px; height: 256px;" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: center;">First-place winner. </div>

The Spelman College CS Olympiad

Posted by Marcus Mitchell, Engineering Director We're always interested in supporting computer science education, and in encouraging top...

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