Google will slap repeat malware offenders with a 30-day red alert for website visitors.
Chrome, Firefox and Safari will display a full page 'deceptive' warning for those websites that appear to intentionally spread malware, unwanted software or phishing pages.
Further, they’ll be blocked from the Safe Browsing review process, to prevent nefarious webmasters from gaming the system.
Google normally allows a review process if a site is branded as harmful. An operator can ask Google to review the site and remove the warning once it has been confirmed that the offending issue has been rectified.
However, Google has observed that some websites will cease harming users for long enough to have the warnings removed, and will then revert to harmful activity.
“Repeat Offenders are websites that repeatedly switch between compliant and policy-violating behavior for the purpose of having a successful review and having warnings removed,” said Brooke Heinichen, of the Google Safe Browsing Team. “Once Safe Browsing has determined that a site is a Repeat Offender, the webmaster will be unable to request additional reviews via the Search Console for 30 days, and warnings will continue to show to users. When a site is established as a Repeat Offender, the webmaster will be notified via email to their registered Search Console email address.”
Websites that are hacked will not be classified as Repeat Offenders; only sites that purposefully post harmful content will be subject to the policy.
Photo © Ing. Andrej Kaprinary