Mitigating Web-based Malware Attacks

Google Tech Talks July 29, 2009 ABSTRACT Presented by Neil Daswani. Over the past few years, malware spreading primarily by infecting web pages has been a significant emerging trend that has become so significant that the major search engines (including Google, Yahoo, and MSN) and browsers (such as Firefox, Chrome, and IE 8) have been blacklisting infected web pages to protect users. This presentation provides statistics about this trend, and discusses how we can scalably defend websites from the problem via an open-source, security-as-a-service model that enables hosting providers to protect web sites that they host. I'll also discuss how Dasient's technology platform provides automated diagnosis, monitoring, and quarantining of web-based malware, and a few ways in which search engines, technology providers like Dasient, and hosting providers can collaborate to control the spread of web-based malware. Neil Daswani is a co-founder of Dasient, Inc., a new Internet security company backed by some of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley and New York. In the past, Neil has served in a variety of research , development, teaching, and managerial roles at Google, Stanford University, DoCoMo USA Labs, Yodlee, and Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies). While at Stanford, Neil co-founded the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD) Security Certification Program (http://proed.stanford.edu/?security). His areas of expertise include security, wireless data technology, and peer-to-peer systems. He has published extensively in these areas, frequently gives talks at industry and academic conferences, and has been granted several U.S. patents. He received a Ph.D. and a master's in computer science from Stanford University, and earned a bachelor's in computer science with honors with distinction from Columbia University. Neil is also the lead author of Foundations of Security: What Every Programmer Needs To Know (published by Apress; ISBN 1590597842; http://tinyurl.com/33xs6g ). More information about Neil is available at http://www.neildaswani.com.