Web of Trust Under Attack
Posted Under: PC Security,Web of Trust,Web Protection
Web of Trust continues to be slated as a 'scam' and accused of 'stealing information from users hard drives' by a mindless minority who claim that the WOT addon is purely 'spyware' which captures users personal information, banking details and so on.
If this were the case, I for one would know what information is leaking from my system, or are we supposed to be blind to what is happening on our computers?
WOT does not collect personal information, and users have the option of creating a profile and also the option to receive the monthly newsletter, but neither are essential or forced upon users.
Sites such as Web of Trust do come under attack from many sources, especially those that have been rated poorly, and with good reason, but some of the claims made are quite ridiculous and the authors prefer to remain anonymous.
In this instance, the author also claims that the Web of Trust group (Against Intuition) "would then charge companies large sums of money to remove negative ratings and posts from their message board".
Sites are rated by users and forum members, bad or wrong ratings have also been overturned, frequently with a simple request.
There is no 'charge' to remove negative ratings.
This is a complete fabrication and I suspect that other sources quoted by the author are also articles written by the same individual.
Web of Trust has a number of partners who fully support the service offered.
The majority of these are well known, highly respected and trusted sites and would have looked deeper into the facts before supporting WOT.
Sites include:
8 Falcon - PhishTank - OpenDNS - Truste - hpHosts - Surf Canyon - Cloudeight Internet - Computer Bild - Softonic - LinkExtend - Free PC Security - HolyFile - Malware Patrol - Tech Jaws - FreewareBB - Spacequad - WinVistaClub - MJUK VARA - TechGuruLive - MajorGeeks - WinTechPedia - Calendar of Updates - Onlineshutz.org - CyberInsecure -Angelo pc - WebTalk - Cool Search - SCForum - Web Beacon - Please visit them, the links are live and will take you right there.
Now, if WOT was the scam that it is claimed to be, why would so many respected sites back it, why would Michael Widenius, the original MySQL guru have joined the team, and why would Panda Security, the world's leading provider of cloud-based security solutions, have partnered with Web of Trust and why would so many others advocate the use of the addon?
All of the above sites have been slated for their support of WOT, and for this site the 'Admin' entered the following comment:
"Free PC Security – another enabling company that has aligned themselves with MyWOT. They pretty much have to because of MyWOT’s extortion habits…"
What a load of %$£&*! There is no 'pretty much have to' as I decide who I support and I also dislike the unfounded slurs being cast upon the sites that also support Web of Trust as well as the unfounded aspersions against WOT.
The sites responsible for these slurs have anonymous authors, email contact is via gmail only.
Sites responsible are listed on Malwareurl and hpHosts as Fraud / Scam / Phishing.
Malwareurl - Fraud / Scam
hpHosts - Phishing
Malwareurl - Phishing
hpHosts - Phishing
I, along with many others, fully support Web of Trust and will continue to do so, just as I will continue to promote it and come under attack for standing for what is right and listing known bad sites and rating accordingly.
Surf Safer, Surf with WOT - Click Here or the links below
Web of Trust for Internet Explorer
Web of Trust for Firefox
Web of Trust for Google Chrome
Free PC Security, Web of Trust, Security Addon, Trusted Sites, Panda Security
Reader Comments
Sorry, you're wrong ! MyWot is a new kind of cyber criminality. A normal user can look at it from the consumer side and give it a 5 star rating, because they provide him the feeling he has safe web surfing with them. But do they really give safe web surfing away for free ?
I would love this happy MyWot user to be a webmaster who runs a small website. Another website called malwareurl.com whose domain owner's identy is hidden, which is completely illegal, will report that they found a Trojan horse on the small website. This will be reported by the community members, the pack of MyWot, and the website will receive the label "very dangerous, don't trust them." This will automatically be reported to every computer that has MyWot software installed. At this point, nobody has ever checked the allegation. The MyWot community member will not check it, because he fears the Trojan horse that tries to catch him and the employees from MyWot will not check it either, because "it's not their job."
The webmaster will now go to malwareurl to find out where the Trojan horse lives in his website. He will enter the precise URL and finds out that there lives nothing, not even an Athenian cat. He contacts MyWot employees to check out his website, erase the bad rating, but all they do is suggest to sign up with their community and pray. And the more praying members he will bring with him to their community church the better it will be for his website. Now MyWot will report all these new members brought into their community to their sponsors and will get even more money from them and more IP numbers to check for their pack, because MyWot is spyware, you agree to it by signing in their terms of use. We are in a quite kafkaesque situation here, where you must put more gasoline on the fire to stop it and you will never stop it, unless you become a sponsor of MyWot, then you will get their "premium platinum label for safe web surf," wow cool !
This is a practice that reminds me of the Comorra or Mafia. They go to a store in town and tell them : we protect you, if you give or make us earn some money, if not, we will come back at night and damage your store. That's why I would say that MyWot is a new kind of cyber criminality. And that's why I ask everybody to stop to encourage them and not install their spyware. Thank You.
Anapat - Web of Trust is NOT a kind of cyber criminality as you state, nor is it spyware.
I am a happy MyWot user AND webmaster who runs a small site which is respected and trusted by many users, not just WOT.
I will, and do, list malicious domains, although I list the domain only and not the full URL for readers safety as safety is my primary concern for all users. Many reviewers use my lists as well as other published lists to rate them accordingly. I will state that I DO check the validity of each domain and that it does contain malware or dangerous downloads etc. My identity is not hidden and can easily be found through WhoIs and other sources.
I deal with website owners who have infected sites and assist them in removing the malware, but until the site is clean it remains listed and once cleaned it is removed and added to the De-listed Sites which is published monthly.
Web of Trust does make surfing safer for many users and I will continue to promote it as such, and NO, I am not an affiliate although I am a user just as i use Site Advisor, Norton Safeweb and many more.
If you wish to argue your point I suggest that you take it to the WOT Forum and state your case. Regards
Colin
>>I would love this happy MyWot user to be a webmaster who runs a small website.
I run a small website and am a happy, active WOT user.
>>Another website called malwareurl.com whose domain owner's identy is hidden, which is completely illegal,
How is having a private domain registration illegal? If MalwareURL.com was a business, I would agree with you; a business should list their contact information. However, the site is personal and doesn't sell anything.
>>because MyWot is spyware
The WOT add-on is NOT spyware.
* Open add-ons. All WOT add-ons are open source, which means anyone can download the source code and verify what the add-on does. There are no secrets in the add-on, it only does what it says. The Firefox add-on is also thoroughly reviewed by Mozilla editors every time it's submitted to the Add-ons website.
* No tracking. The add-on sends as little information to WOT servers as possible. When you visit a website, the add-on sends the hostname (not the URL) of the site to WOT servers to load the reputation and your ratings. The hostname is encrypted in transit and on our servers logs to prevent eavesdropping. No further requests are made if you revisit the site during the next 30 minutes while the add-on keeps the reputations in its internal cache.
* Data retention. All requests the add-on makes are logged temporarily on WOT's servers. These logs aren't used to track users and the information isn't shared with anyone. The logs are kept temporarily only to create usage statistics and to analyze possible abuse incidents. All the information (except for your ratings, of course) is deleted after one month. You can read more from the privacy policy.
source: http://www.mywot.com/wiki/FAQ#The_add-on_is_spywa...
Bob Zenith´s last [type] ..Browser Market Share for Aug 2010
Bob Zenith´s last [type] ..Browser Market Share for Aug 2010
Bob - Many thanks for your valued comment and input and for clarifying this matter further.
There is a small core of users that are misinformed and do not learn the facts before they decide to spout off, which is appalling.
Web of Trust is something that I promote on every post and I have very high regard for the integrity of the team and the forum members, without whom, the internet would be a more dangerous place for all users. Web of Trust helps to warn unwary users to the dangers that lurk around many sites with malware, backdoors, scams etc. This at least gives WOT users a chance to avoid such sites and to have a safer surfing experience.
All the best
Colin