Google and Yahoo aim to increase online security

Google and Yahoo are investing in online security with new malware product offerings for consumers and businesses.

Google Web Security for Enterprise is a malware protection and URL filtering product with policy enforcement and reporting. The Google offering comes with an additional feature that extends the same protection to users working remotely on laptops on guest networks.

“Protecting employees from Internet threats is tough enough when they're at work, much less when they're on the road,” said Matthew O'Connor, product manager at Google, in a blog post. “Off-network users are particularly vulnerable to web threats because they must remember to connect via VPN for protection when they're away from the office.”

Meanwhile, Yahoo has teamed up with McAfee Inc. to make Web searching more secure. The new SearchScan feature by Yahoo Search alerts users to sites with security concerns such as spyware, adware and other malicious software that can infect and damage a user's PC. The tool also identifies sites that have shown bad e-mail practices to prevent computers from being infected with malware.

“The more protected the end user's PC is, the better off they are from having their PC turned into zombie computer that sends spam,” said Shalabh Mohan, group product manager, Web security at IronPort.