Google's Matt Cutts Aims to Fight Virtual Blight - Security - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Google’s Matt Cutts Aims to Fight Virtual Blight

Google’s Matt Cutts Aims to Fight Virtual Blight
Written By
Clint Boulton
Clint Boulton
Nov 6, 2008
1 minute read
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Google’s Matt Cutts Aims to Fight Virtual Blight

Google’s Matt Cutts Aims to Fight Virtual Blight

Matt Cutts Is Thrilled to Be Here

2

Google’s Web spam cop looks tickled to be at the Web 2.0 Summit.


Virtual Blight … Ewwwww

3

What does a rotten, stunted Web site smell like?


4

Spammers look to steal links to infect.


5

Here’s some link blight in action.


Landing Page Blight

6

Spammers set up pages on your site.


Example

7

Here’s an example of landing page blight.


Infectious Code

8

“Virtual blighters” also use malicious code to infiltrate sites.


Landing Page Blight Solution

9

Use CAPTCHA! And Pray. Among other things.


Hacking!

10

Hacking is an obvious form of virtual blight.


Example

11

Cutts showed a Google hire how his site had been hacked. The blocked-out letters include the employee’s name.


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How to Prevent Hacks

12

Lots of patches, etc.


Think Like a Black Hat to Ward Off Spammers

13

Cutts says you need to think like the bad guys to thwart malicious invaders.

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