The domain tagging submission form should require complete URLs when the root domain is insufficient information to perform proper categorization.
A common problem I've seen in the last month is that legitimate domains are getting filtered into incorrect categories. For example, "rcm-images.amazon.com" is being tagged as an "adware" site, but the site is used exclusively (as far as I can tell) as a host for their images. A site hosting advertisement images should be tagged as "advertisements" not "adware".
Okay, fine, maybe there really is a URL on that domain that's hosting adware. Okay, sure: prove it. As far as I can tell, the domain tagging feature ONLY supports linking to the root domain. In this case, the root domain is a 'forbidden' message, as well it should be for a domain that is only concerned with serving images. If there's a URL that is serving Adware on this domain, INCLUDE IT in the submission process (it's simple enough for OpenDNS to parse the domain from the complete URL).
Inclusion of the complete URL will ensure that people have the capacity to test it and ensure it REALLY IS adware. Otherwise, the ONLY information people voting (who probably have no interest in actually performing any additional research beyond clicking through to the homepage) have is a "not found", "forbidden" or what-not. This is wholly insufficient information to validate categorisations like "adware" or "phishing".
Without any form of validation, OpenDNS is allowing the poisoning of its data by people who are only concerned with placing well in the community stats.
And if the URLs submitted are really just content sources for the Adware that's infected a computer, then many more sites should be filtered with the Adware tag. Like Yahoo, Google, and Live.com. These (and many other search engines) are used by Adware and other malware to scalp content from those search engines to discover potential new infection targets. They're just as "guilty" of hosting Adware as any site hosting only advertisement images could possibly be.
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A common problem I've seen in the last month is that legitimate domains are getting filtered into incorrect categories. For example, "rcm-images.amazon.com" is being tagged as an "adware" site, but the site is used exclusively (as far as I can tell) as a host for their images. A site hosting advertisement images should be tagged as "advertisements" not "adware".
Okay, fine, maybe there really is a URL on that domain that's hosting adware. Okay, sure: prove it. As far as I can tell, the domain tagging feature ONLY supports linking to the root domain. In this case, the root domain is a 'forbidden' message, as well it should be for a domain that is only concerned with serving images. If there's a URL that is serving Adware on this domain, INCLUDE IT in the submission process (it's simple enough for OpenDNS to parse the domain from the complete URL).
Inclusion of the complete URL will ensure that people have the capacity to test it and ensure it REALLY IS adware. Otherwise, the ONLY information people voting (who probably have no interest in actually performing any additional research beyond clicking through to the homepage) have is a "not found", "forbidden" or what-not. This is wholly insufficient information to validate categorisations like "adware" or "phishing".
Without any form of validation, OpenDNS is allowing the poisoning of its data by people who are only concerned with placing well in the community stats.
And if the URLs submitted are really just content sources for the Adware that's infected a computer, then many more sites should be filtered with the Adware tag. Like Yahoo, Google, and Live.com. These (and many other search engines) are used by Adware and other malware to scalp content from those search engines to discover potential new infection targets. They're just as "guilty" of hosting Adware as any site hosting only advertisement images could possibly be.
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written by wabashgeneral 197 days ago
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Agree... I have seen several sites like this. Labeled one way but no idea why. Another idea would be a comment field and you can note a reason and the link can be added there.
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DNS doesn't work off an entire URL though.
And in the subdomains... some people appear to be registering subdomains that have the same categories as what they are subdomains of (so adding no new info)... which is pointless