Googler updates open-source anti-malware tool
Niels Provos, one of the brains behind Google's big anti-malware push, has released a new version of the open-source SpyBye, adding a key new feature to allow it to be used as proxy for regular Web browsing.
SpyBye, a free utility that helps Web masters determine if their Web pages are hosting browser exploits, can now work within the browser to trigger a warning notification and links to an in-depth analysis of the suspicious page.
This makes it not only easier for web masters to quickly browser of their sites for dangerous contents, it also means that regular users can use SpyBye to protect their web browsing sessions. Proxy mode is not turned on by default, you need to start SpyBye with the -x flag to enable it as a web proxy.
Provos works on SpyBye on his own time (he says it's not one of those Google 20% free-time projects) but this project is a clear sign of things to come from Google. The company recently acquired GreenBorder, a browser security virtualization company and announced a major effort "to identify all web pages on the Internet that could potentially be malicious."