Google Slaps Malware Sites With Punishments Similar To Giving Kids Time-Out

Google is upping the ante when it comes to dealing with websites that have malicious content by branding them with a “Repeat Offender” label. This is the search engine company’s way of telling users that these websites have been known to infect computers with malware or phish for personal information in the past. It’s also a way for Google to do something about malware without completely removing the sites from its indexing list.

Google has been warning users against potentially harmful sites through their Google Chrome browser for years, Tech Crunch reports. When a user visits a site that Google believes carries some harmful code, Chrome will take the user to a warning page before allowing them to proceed. If the user’s computer gets infected because they chose to ignore the warning, at least Google did its part.

Eventually, however, these sites figured out a way to get around the filter by playing nice for a little while until Google forgave them. Once the websites are back in the search engine company’s good graces, the warning page would be removed. At that time, they’ll resume their illicit activities as before.

Well, it seems Google has had enough and has announced that any website caught infecting users with malware repeatedly will be cut off once again. The sites won’t be able to request for re-verification for 30 days, which is good news for users.

Unfortunately, once the 30 days are up, these websites can do what they did before and play the innocent online entities that learned their lesson card. The month-long delay might be inconvenient, but there still ways around it that enterprising ne’er do wells can take advantage of.

In order for users to truly be protected from malware websites, Google will need a more permanent solution than just giving them a time-out. Otherwise, the cycle will just continue.