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Scandoo.Com Provides Free Service to Make Web Searching More Secure; Consumers No Longer Have to 'Roll the Dice' When Clicking on Search Engine Results

Posted on: Monday, 22 May 2006, 12:00 CDT

ScanSafe, the worldwide leader in managed Web security, today introduced Scandoo.com (www.Scandoo.com), the first and only service that proactively evaluates search engine results and warns users about links containing security threats (viruses, spyware, adware) and offensive or illegal content (pornography, gambling, pirated software) before users click on those links. Currently in beta, Scandoo.com is free, requires no downloads, software installation or updating, and thus offers a simple, intuitive interface to guide Web users through searches.

Scandoo.com allows users to work with their preferred search engine. The site currently works with Google and MSN Search and will add functionality with the other two leading search engines, Yahoo! and Ask.com, in the coming weeks.

"For most of us, Web searching is instinctive, something we do every day as part of our home or work life," said ScanSafe co-founder and CEO Eldar Tuvey. "Most Websites look benign, and we trust the results we get, but the fact is searching the Internet nowadays is like 'rolling the dice' -- you don't know what you are going to get before you click Scandoo.com eliminates that worry: it's a bit like providing traffic lights for the Internet."

Scandoo.com eliminates the risk of clicking on unknown sites by scanning each search result in real-time for malicious content. Scandoo.com leverages ScanSafe's proprietary, enterprise-class heuristics technology, Outbreak Intelligence(TM), to feed data back to the search page, providing instant ratings and Website classifications -- all within a matter of milliseconds. Icons appear next to each site, advising whether it is safe (a green checkmark), unclassified and should be approached with caution (a yellow question mark), or one to be avoided (a red X). Additionally, potentially harmful sites containing malware are identified with a 'bug' icon.

Users can also mouse over each icon, and get detailed information about a site's content. Scandoo.com also allows users to personalize their results by setting their own security preferences, as well as providing feedback on specific site classifications.

"We believe the future of Web searching is moving very quickly toward a collaborative approach, where Web users will help classify and reclassify the Web accurately -- tapping into people's knowledge is key, so that our whole community benefits and is better secured," Tuvey added. "Employees of large enterprises often enjoy the latest security services for Web and instant messaging, but there has been no move to provide similar security to home and small business users. Search is the main gateway to the Web, and therefore a great place to begin our entry into on-demand consumer security."

About Scandoo.com

Scandoo.com (www.Scandoo.com) is the first and only service that proactively evaluates search engine results and warns about links containing security threats and offensive content before users click on them. Currently in beta, Scandoo.com is free, requires no downloads, software installation or updating, and it is designed to work with all the leading search engines. This service is powered by managed Web-security pioneer ScanSafe, a privately owned company that scans more than three billion Web requests per month, using proprietary, enterprise-class technology to identify malicious code in real-time with no perceptible latency. With offices in London and San Francisco, ScanSafe is the largest global provider of managed Web security, offering Web Filtering, Virus Scanning, Spyware Screening and IM Control services. For more information, please visit www.ScanSafe.com.

All trademarks contained within this press release are the sole property of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged.

Notes to Editors

Examples

Type in the word 'toys' or 'dolls' and the search provides a list of options, of which sex sites come up in the top four results. For the term 'peaches' a porn site is the second result. A search on the well known illicit term 'crackz' clearly warns the user of malware-infected sites.

Statistics

-- More than 90 percent of the new Websites visited are the result of searches

-- 30,000 new porn Web pages are added every single day

-- A recent Harris Interactive poll showed that 94 percent of men and 95 percent of women had visited a porn site by accident

-- An AOL study showed that 80 percent of U.S. home computers are infected by spyware

Source: Business Wire

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