"www.autohotkey.com" Is Safer Than "autohotkey.com"?
Posted: 02 Nov 2018, 17:11
The results of Google Safe Browsing is very odd, particularly with a minor name change of www.autohotkey.com versus autohotkey.com. Go to Google Safe Browsing search (https://transparencyreport.google.com/s ... ing/search), and check the difference.
www.autohotkey.com or www.autohotkey.com/download/ will generate no negative reports and are safe, while removing the "www" will generate negative reports of suspicious malware from Google Safe Browsing.
There might be an issue with AutoHotkey's website DNS settings. Something to also watch out for is DNS spoofing and hijacking. Spammers will also attempt to attack websites in this way too. In the case of DNS spoofing, this is when a server is misconfigured or reconfigured by criminals and is redirecting website traffic to unauthorized servers that contain malware. DNS hijacking can happen on both the server or user's end, where malware is installed on the computer and is redirecting traffic to malware servers/websites.
Changing the DNS settings or download page directory might be enough to get off of Google's blacklist.
It appears that Google can mistakenly blacklist websites, because criminals with fake servers are redirecting to the real website or that their malware is using a company's name or the same name as their software. The real company or webmaster can be totally unaware of such activity or have nothing to do with it, but still have to deal with Google's blacklisting. Clearly, Google is not entirely forthcoming about their methods and how blacklists are validated, which then leaves a lot of room for mistakes and misunderstandings on their end.
https://youtu.be/DEkscTGKTOA
(Webinar: How to Understand and Fix Google Blacklist Warnings)
www.autohotkey.com or www.autohotkey.com/download/ will generate no negative reports and are safe, while removing the "www" will generate negative reports of suspicious malware from Google Safe Browsing.
There might be an issue with AutoHotkey's website DNS settings. Something to also watch out for is DNS spoofing and hijacking. Spammers will also attempt to attack websites in this way too. In the case of DNS spoofing, this is when a server is misconfigured or reconfigured by criminals and is redirecting website traffic to unauthorized servers that contain malware. DNS hijacking can happen on both the server or user's end, where malware is installed on the computer and is redirecting traffic to malware servers/websites.
Changing the DNS settings or download page directory might be enough to get off of Google's blacklist.
It appears that Google can mistakenly blacklist websites, because criminals with fake servers are redirecting to the real website or that their malware is using a company's name or the same name as their software. The real company or webmaster can be totally unaware of such activity or have nothing to do with it, but still have to deal with Google's blacklisting. Clearly, Google is not entirely forthcoming about their methods and how blacklists are validated, which then leaves a lot of room for mistakes and misunderstandings on their end.
https://youtu.be/DEkscTGKTOA
(Webinar: How to Understand and Fix Google Blacklist Warnings)