McAfee SiteAdvisor

McAfee SiteAdvisor is a website rating service, comprising a website, and browser plugins for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

The service initially involves an automated analysis of a website, to quickly assess how safe it is. The site is then given an initial rating, followed up by user input, that can sway the initial ranking. Users contributing information deemed useful by others are seen as more trustworthy, and given more authority.

The automated analysis involves checking forms for spam, and checking downloads for viruses.

Websites are ranked using a traffic light system, green being safe, yellow being a notification for potential risk, and red being a serious warning that the website does seem to pose siginficant risk to a user.

Notably, alexa.com, home to the Alexa ranking service, recieves a yellow warning, as the Alexa Toolbar is seen as spyware by some anti-virus software.

On Sunday the 5th of October SiteAdvisor experienced a period of downtime, carrying the hallmarks of a DDoS attack, of around one hour. During this time, potentially dangerous websites and respectable websites were shown as unranked. As an added danger, warnings of phishing were not displayed, leaving users open to exposing their financial details.