StopBadware is a consumer-oriented nonprofit organization aimed at fighting malicious software, or "badware". It is the successor to StopBadware.org, a project started in 2006 at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. It spun off to become a standalone organization, and dropped the “.org” in its name, in January 2010.^[1]

People [link]

The founders of StopBadware.org were John Palfrey, then Executive Director of the Berkman Center, and Jonathan Zittrain, then at the Oxford Internet Institute.^[2] Both are now Professors of Law at Harvard University and faculty co-directors of the Berkman Center.

Board members of StopBadware include Michael Barrett (Chair), Vint Cerf, Mike Shaver, Esther Dyson, Paul Mockapetris, John Morris, and Maxim Weinstein, StopBadware’s current executive director.^[3] John Palfrey and Ari Schwartz formerly served on the Board.

Supporters [link]

StopBadware is funded by corporate and individual donations. Its current partners are Google, Mozilla, PayPal, and Nominum.^[4][5] Google, Sunbelt Software, and NSFocus participate as data providers in the organization’s Badware Website Clearinghouse (see below). Previous supporters include AOL, Lenovo, VeriSign, Sun Microsystems, Trend Micro, and MySpace. Consumer Reports WebWatch, a now-defunct part of Consumers Union, served as an unpaid special advisor while StopBadware.org was a project at the Berkman Center.

Activities [link]

StopBadware’s mission is to “provide tools and information that assist industry and policymakers in meeting their responsibility to protect users from badware, and that help users protect themselves.”^[6] StopBadware educates users about badware prevention and remediation, where “badware” is defined as software that fundamentally disregards a user’s choice about how his or her computer or network connection will be used.^[7] The organization receives data from its data providers and maintains a searchable clearinghouse (Badware Website Clearinghouse) of URLs blacklisted by those data providers.^[8] StopBadware’s independent review process gives webmasters the option to request removal from data providers’ blacklists and is intended to function as “due process” for webmasters whose sites have been listed as bad.^[9] StopBadware maintains a community forum, BadwareBusters.org,^[10] which includes an online form for reporting badware URLs encountered by the community.

StopBadware also aggregates badware statistics,^[11] advocates for consumer protection in public policy, and publishes advisory documents (software guidelines,^[12] best practices for web hosting providers^[13]) compiled with input from the organization’s working groups.^[14]

Defining "badware"[link]

Symbol used by Stopbadware to identify "badware"

StopBadware.org originally, in 2006, defined "badware" as follows:

1. If the application acts deceptively or irreversibly.
2. If the application engages in potentially objectionable behavior without:
   • First, prominently disclosing to the user that it will engage in such behavior, in clear and non-technical language, and
   • Then, obtaining the user's affirmative consent to that aspect of the application.^[15]

As of 2011, the guidelines have changed and are now more complex.^[12]

StopBadware takes the position that software is badware if it does certain prohibited things, despite any disclaimer in an EULA or purported consent by the user. "Silently downloading" and "Installing additional software without informing the user of the identity and purpose of that software (bundling)" are examples of such prohibited behavior.

Symbol used for "badware" under investigation

StopBadware investigates reports of improper behavior by programs, and may offer vendors the opportunity to reply to the findings of StopBadware. The "Cross and Hourglass" symbol to the right is used to designate programs where problems have been found but the vendor claims to be attempting to remedy the problem.

For comparison, see the "Trusted Download" standards [1] proposed by TrustE for adware and spyware.

Google and StopBadware [link]

There is a common misconception that StopBadware blacklists websites and that Google uses this blacklist to protect their users. In fact, Google’s Safe Browsing initiative uses automated systems to identify and blacklist websites.^[16] This blacklist is used by Google to warn users before they visit potentially dangerous sites. The Firefox web browser and other applications also use Google’s Safe Browsing API to warn their users based on the same blacklist.

The confusion is likely due to the close relationship between Google and StopBadware. Google links to StopBadware from their interstitial warning pages.^[17] The link directs users to StopBadware’s educational content about badware;^[18] it also points webmasters to StopBadware’s independent review process so site owners can request removal from Google’s blacklist.^[19] StopBadware’s Badware Website Clearinghouse also lists websites blacklisted by Google.

Google uses automated systems to search for websites that distribute badware, and issues warnings about websites on which malicious activity is detected.^[20] When a user tries to access one of these sites, that user is redirected to an interstitial page wherein Google warns the user of the detected malicious activity.^[21] Google attempts to notify site owners when blacklisting a website.^[22]

See also[link]

• Malware

References [link]

External links[link]

• StopBadware website
• Current list of "badware"

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (August 2011)

Philippe Courtot (August 26, 1944) is best known as a serial entrepreneur who turned several small startups into multimillion companies. Currently he is the chairman and CEO of Qualys, Inc. He spent his early days in France. He holds a Master's Degree in Physics from the University of Paris. Philippe Courtot moved to the United States of America in 1981 and has been in the Silicon Valley since 1987.^[1]

Before his current tenure with Qualys, Philippe was the chairman and CEO of Signio. In 2000, VeriSign acquired Signio. After which, Philippe served as President and CEO of Verity. Philippe Courtot is also responsible for the success of cc:Mail, e-mail platform providers. Philippe has also served as CEO of Thomson CGR Medical, a medical imaging company. In 1986 he was awarded for his role in creating a nationwide advertising campaign promoting the life-saving benefits of mammography. He has also served on the Board of Trustees for The Internet Society, an international non-profit organization that fosters global cooperation and coordination on the development of the Internet.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Qualys Management Overview

This article about an American businessperson born in the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Esther Dyson
Born	(1951-07-14) July 14, 1951 (age 60) Zürich, Switzerland

Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951) is a former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst who is a leading angel investor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and commentator focused on breakthrough innovation in healthcare, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology, and space.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} Dyson is currently focusing her career on preemptive healthcare and continues to invest in health technology.^[8]

On 7 October 2008, Space Adventures announced that Dyson had paid to train as a back-up spaceflight participant for Charles Simonyi's trip to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 mission which took place in 2009.^[9]

Life[link]

Dyson's father is the physicist Freeman Dyson; her mother is mathematician Verena Huber-Dyson; and her brother is digital technology historian George Dyson.^[10] In childhood she received, for alliterative purposes only, the nickname "Dodo" (pronounced dough-dough); there does not appear to be, however, significant use of this nickname beyond her primary school experience.^[11] After graduating from Harvard with a degree in economics, she joined Forbes as a fact-checker and quickly rose to reporter. In 1977, she joined New Court Securities as "the research department",^[2] following Federal Express and other start-ups. After a stint at Oppenheimer Holdings covering software companies, she moved to Rosen Research and in 1983 bought the company from her employer Ben Rosen, renaming it EDventure Holdings. She sold EDventure Holdings to CNET Networks in 2004, but left CNET in January 2007 after CNET declined to continue her PC Forum conference.^[12]

Publications and business ventures[link]

Dyson said, "I'm flying!", 2007 courtesy Zero-G

Dyson in 2007

Currently, Dyson is a board member and active investor in a variety of start-ups, mostly in online services, health care/genetics, and space travel.^[13]

Previously, Dyson and her company EDventure specialized in analyzing the impact of emerging technologies and markets on economies and societies. She created the following publications on technology:

• Release 1.0, her monthly technology-industry newsletter, published by EDventure Holdings. Until 2006, Dyson wrote several issues herself and edited the others. When she left CNET, the newsletter was picked up by O'Reilly Media, which appointed Jimmy Guterman to edit it and renamed the newsletter Release 2.0.
• Release 2.0, her 1997 book on how the Internet affects individuals' lives. Its full title is Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age. The revision Release 2.1 was published in 1998.
• Release 3.0, her bimonthly column for the New York Times, distributed via its syndicate and reprinted in Release 1.0 (now defunct).
• Release 4.0, her weblog. On March 4, 2005, that weblog moved to Dyson's Flickr account.^[14]

She is an occasional contributor^[15] and sits on the advisory board of a new Open Access, Open Source, Open Peer Review journal, the Journal of Participatory Medicine.

Dyson is an adviser to the First Monday journal, and an occasional contributor to Arianna Huffington's online Huffington Post as Release 0.9.^[16]

Dyson has also been a board member or early investor in several tech startups, among them TrustedID, Cygnus Solutions, Flickr, del.icio.us, Eventful, Netbeans, Powerset, Systinet, ZEDO, CV-Online, Medscape, Medstory, Meetup, Valkee and Vurve.^[13]

As of early 2007, Dyson describes herself as "spending more and more time on private aviation and commercial space startups"^[17] and also in health care and genetics. She has invested in XCOR, Constellation Services, Zero-G, Icon Aircraft, and Space Adventures. Since 2005, she has hosted the Flight School conference in Aspen.^[18] She is currently on the board of directors of 23andMe, and is one of the first ten volunteers in the Personal Genome Project. Her latest investment include: Applied Proteomics, Genomera, Habit Labs, HealthEngage, Health Loop, HealthRally, HealthTap, Keas, Medico, Medivo, Omada Health, Organized Wisdom, PatientsLikeMe, Resilient, Tocagen, Mequibrium, VitaPortal, GreenGoose, PatientsKnowBest, and Valkee.^[19]

Philanthropy[link]

Dyson is an active member of a number of non-profit and advisory organizations. From 1998 to 2000, she was the founding chairman of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. As of 2004, she sat on its "reform" committee, dedicated to defining a role for individuals in ICANN's decision-making and governance structures.^[2] She opposed ICANN's 2012 expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs).^[20] She has followed closely the post-Soviet transition of Eastern Europe, from 2002 to 2012 was a member of the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Council, along with Vint Cerf, George Sadowsky, and Veni Markovski, among others. She has served as a trustee of, and helped fund, emerging organizations such as Glasses for Humanity, Bridges.org, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Eurasia Foundation. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The After-School Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all students. She is also a member of the boards of the Sunlight Foundation, StopBadware, The Long Now Foundation, and a trustee of the Santa Fe Institute.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Esther Dyson

• EDventure.com official website
• Column archive at Project Syndicate
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Esther Dyson on Charlie Rose
• Esther Dyson at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Esther Dyson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Esther Dyson collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Esther Dyson interviewed by Allan Gregg for TVOntario (1997) (See also programme information)

Andreas Weigend is a former Chief Scientist at Amazon.com and the author of over 100 scientific papers on the application of machine learning techniques to finance and business problems.

He currently lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and Tsinghua University on the application of data analysis to electronic business problems. He is an advisor to many technology companies including MySpace Peerius and Nokia, and is a limited partner in The Founders Fund.

External links [link]

• Personal Website
• Social Data Revolution
• Social Data Revolution on YouTube
• Oakland Digital (ODALC): Andreas serves as Oakland Digital's senior advisor.