1. There is a warning about my site. How do I remove this warning?
   StopBadware does not make the warnings, but we can help you learn how to remove them. If you’re seeing a warning about your website, then Google may have detected badware on your site. Please see My site has badware to learn how to remove Google’s and Firefox’s badware warnings.
    
2. What is badware?
   Badware is software that disregards your choice about how your computer or network connection is used. Badware might try to steal your financial or sensitive information, send spam to your contacts, or use your computer to attack other computers. Much of badware today is distributed through websites, many of which are compromised without their owners’ knowledge. Read more about badware and badware websites.
    
3. Why do I see “This site may harm your computer” or “Reported attack site” when I try to visit a website?
   In short, because Google detected badware on that site. Google uses automated systems to scan the Web for badware activity. When their systems detect badware activity, Google issues a warning about that site in order to protect customers. This is why you sometimes see “This site may harm your computer” in Google search results. Firefox uses Google’s list of bad sites to warn Firefox customers. This is where the “Reported attack site” warnings come from. The warnings link to StopBadware because we are a nonprofit with information about preventing and removing badware.
    
4. I know and trust the site I was trying to visit. Could the badware warning be a mistake?
   Many popular, legitimate websites are infected with badware without the knowledge (or permission!) of the site owners. Typically, this happens through a security hole, like outdated software or plugins. An infected ad network can also cause the warning to show. In short, it is very unlikely the warning is a mistake, even if you consider the site you are trying to access to be trustworthy. We almost never see false positives. However: one of the important things StopBadware does is check the accuracy and transparency of our data providers’ blacklists. If a site owner believes his or her site is on one of our data providers’ lists in error, then that site owner can request an independent review from StopBadware. Read more about this process.

Learn more about StopBadware. You can also search our Clearinghouse to see if your site, or another site you're interested in, is blacklisted by the companies that provide data to StopBadware.