Indicating website reputations during user interactions

• US 8,438,499 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2006
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Dixon, Christopher John, Pinckney, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): ITURRALDE, ENRIQUE W
• Application Number:
  US11/342,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20060253578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,658 Days
• Field of Search: 715/760, 715/711, 715/745, 715/747, 715/779, 715/808, 715/809, 715/811, 715/812, 715741-742, 715/764
• US Class Current: 715/809
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2139 Recurrent verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1483 service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing detection of rogue wireless access points H04W12/12

Abstract

An aspect of the present invention relates to methods and systems involving receiving an indicator of an attempted interaction of a user with an item of website content and presenting one or more indicia of a website'"'"'s reputation to the user attempting to interact with the website content. The act of presenting the indicia may be in response to the user'"'"'s attempted interaction with the website.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an indicator of an attempted interaction of a computer with an item of website content that is included in a website; and

presenting one or more indicia of a website'"'"'s reputation in response to the attempted interaction, wherein the website'"'"'s reputation is developed, at least in part, based on reputational characteristics of links provided on the website, and wherein part of evaluating the website'"'"'s reputation includes detecting a genre associated with the website and detecting a business model of the website, and wherein if the website content is determined to include unwanted content, a list of recommended uniform resource locators (URLs) to alternate web content and an alternative program to one being provided by the website, all of which have a good reputational characteristic, are provided, and wherein the attempted interaction results in an option being presented for initiating a virus scan at the computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reputation indicator is presented on a menu bar.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the reputation indicator is presented on a navigation bar.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reputation indicator is updated upon each attempted website interaction.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the update involves receiving information from a reputation service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the reputation service employs a reputation server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation comprises another indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation for treatment of personal information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation comprises another indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation for providing unwanted content.

9. A system including a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:

a receiving facility adapted to receive an indicator of an attempted interaction of a computer with an item of website content that is included in a website; and

a presentation facility adapted to present one or more indicia of a website'"'"'s reputation in response to the attempted interaction, wherein the website'"'"'s reputation is developed, at least in part, based on reputational characteristics of links provided on the website, and wherein part of evaluating the website'"'"'s reputation includes detecting a genre associated with the website and detecting a business model of the website, and wherein if the website content is determined to include unwanted content, a list of recommended uniform resource locators (URLs) to alternate web content and an alternative program to one being provided by the website, all of which have a good reputational characteristic, are provided, and wherein the attempted interaction results in an option being presented for initiating a virus scan at the computer.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reputation indicator is presented on a menu bar.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the reputation indicator is presented on a navigation bar.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the reputation indicator is updated upon each attempted website interaction.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the update involves receiving information from a reputation service.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the reputation service employs a reputation server.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation comprises another indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation for treatment of personal information.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation comprises another indicia of the website'"'"'s reputation for providing unwanted content.