How many hours daily do you spend surfing in the Internet? Have you ever thought of all the traps that are awaiting you, the more or less innocent surfer?
Symantec Finland estimates that 60,000 new malicious websites and online scams are created daily, and a million cybercrimes generate a worldwide expense of c.275 billion euros. Who protects the websurfer from the invisible threats that lurk in the formless corners of a Universe that has no body and no volume?
In medieval and baroque cities everybody knew that going out at night into the non-illuminated streets was a lethal risk. Bandits of all sorts lied in ambush in the dark corners of the tortuous city. The citizens knew which neighbourhoods where the most dangerous, so they avoided them. The threat had a face and a breath that stank.
But, what about these amorphous and amazing 21st century cities, that float somewhere in the fathomless universe called Internet? Who is our enemy? Where does he hide? The miracles of the Web bring along unwonted problems. Our time of reaction is dangerously long and mostly we don't even know what to do!
Automated security systems are not enough any more. Their basic function is to watch out for technical security threats. But scams have become a much bigger threat than technical dangers and are not so easy to detect -at least alone.
But worry not, I'm not spoiling your week because I have good news. Some six years ago in Tampere Finland, these two young engineers came up with a cool idea that has developed into a company called WOT Services Ltd.
Web of Trust, aka WOT, is the name of the programme that Sami Tolvanen and Timo Ala-Kleemola created.
WOT gathers the ratings and commentaries given by users -the WOT Community, around 34 million people ever growing - on the Websites they visit. The ratings are valued by their merit: the more consistently you keep rating sites, the more reliable your ratings will be considered over time. To avoid manipulation, WOT uses some of the principles of Bayesian Inference. Combining these user-given ratings and the information provided by trusted sources specialized in security issues, WOT reorganizes and updates the info on the reputation of more than 30 something million Websites every half an hour with the aid of an algorithm. Then WOT shoots back the fresh info into Cyberspace. The number of evaluated Websites grows daily.
WOT is our reputation authority, concerned not only about technical issues, but also moral issues.
As a private user, once you download for free WOT in WOT's webpage www.mywot.com (these engineer guys are philanthropists!) you will start benefiting from WOT's security service. From then on, every time you search with Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari a donut in the colours of the traffic lights, that appears by the name of the Websites, will inform you if the Website is reliable, if it respects your privacy, if it is safe for kids and if you can trust their sales services. Green is safe; yellow is so and so; red is unsafe. Simple. WOT does not block any page, it just informs you of the reputation it enjoys.
The giants Facebook and Mail.ru Group trust WOT and work hand in hand with it.
Companies can buy wider security services from WOT. This Finnish innovator is starting to shake the world with its good news.
Internet surfing is safer than ever. Spread your wings and fear not, for you have WOT!