All small- and medium-scale industries should start investing on reliable website security program soon. Many are still in denial, but data from different government agency will show that small businesses are now being targeted more often by cyber-criminals.
Once the site is hacked and infected with various forms of malwares, it will be more costly to recover the lost opportunities, including those that Google can offer.
Right now, the search giant has intensified its effort in scanning the web's 60 trillion URLs for malware and phishing scams. If it deems a site suspicious, businesses can say goodbye to their customers until the problem is resolved.
“If Google blacklists an infected website, you're basically off the Internet until the website is fixed," said Peter Jensen, CEO of StopTheHacker.com.
Google estimates that it flags and quarantines 10,000 websites daily (it doesn't use the term "blacklist"). It not only scans Google's search results and ads, but also flags suspicious URLs typed into browsers. The search engine Bing, run by Microsoft, treats infected sites in a similar fashion.
Being blacklisted can quickly decimate a small firm's reputation and sales. Multinational companies can easily replace lost revenues through cross-subsidy schemes, but a small business will be hard-pressed to make ends meet once access to their site is blocked indefinitely.
"Businesses say they're not at fault and shouldn't be penalized. Google [says] it wants to keep the Internet safe for its users," said Jensen, whose firm is contacted 20 or 30 times a day by businesses that have been blacklisted.
Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds emphasized that point. "About 1 billion people receive protection against phishing and malware every day because of the warnings we show users about unsafe websites," he said.
With this current development, it is cheaper to get the latest security upgrades than to wait before acting on it.
Once the site is hacked and infected with various forms of malwares, it will be more costly to recover the lost opportunities, including those that Google can offer.
Right now, the search giant has intensified its effort in scanning the web's 60 trillion URLs for malware and phishing scams. If it deems a site suspicious, businesses can say goodbye to their customers until the problem is resolved.
“If Google blacklists an infected website, you're basically off the Internet until the website is fixed," said Peter Jensen, CEO of StopTheHacker.com.
Google estimates that it flags and quarantines 10,000 websites daily (it doesn't use the term "blacklist"). It not only scans Google's search results and ads, but also flags suspicious URLs typed into browsers. The search engine Bing, run by Microsoft, treats infected sites in a similar fashion.
Being blacklisted can quickly decimate a small firm's reputation and sales. Multinational companies can easily replace lost revenues through cross-subsidy schemes, but a small business will be hard-pressed to make ends meet once access to their site is blocked indefinitely.
"Businesses say they're not at fault and shouldn't be penalized. Google [says] it wants to keep the Internet safe for its users," said Jensen, whose firm is contacted 20 or 30 times a day by businesses that have been blacklisted.
Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds emphasized that point. "About 1 billion people receive protection against phishing and malware every day because of the warnings we show users about unsafe websites," he said.
With this current development, it is cheaper to get the latest security upgrades than to wait before acting on it.
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