What is SiteAdvisor?

How does SiteAdvisor help me search the Internet safely?

How does SiteAdvisor help me surf the Internet safely?

What are the different safety ratings?

How do I make SiteAdvisor work for me?

What criteria does SiteAdvisor base it's safety rating on?

I went to a "green" site, but then I got redirected to a McAfee SiteAdvisor warning page with a "red x" on it. Why?

This is great! Can I use this outside the office too?

Where can I go for more information on SiteAdvisor?

Q What is SiteAdvisor?

A SiteAdvisor is a plug-in to your web browser that will help you decide when to visit websites and when to avoid websites.

Lots of times when users stumble onto a bad website, they can't tell the difference between a good website and a bad website - one that has viruses, spyware or spams you when you provide them your email address etc. This is where SiteAdvisor comes in. SiteAdvisor has already done the research and has their labs test the sites. They then summarize this information into a safety rating for the entire site and displays that information as you search or surf the Internet.

Read the rest of this FAQ to become familiar with SiteAdvisor ratings and you'll have a much safer Internet surfing experience.

If you have any questions about using SiteAdvisor, contact your local IT support.

Q How does SiteAdvisor help me search the Internet safely?

A When searching the Internet with search tools such as Google, Yahoo or MSN, SiteAdvisor displays safety ratings next to each search result so you know the site's safety rating before you visit the site. Most other security tools help you clean up infections after you've been infected, but by understanding SiteAdvisor ratings and using their knowledge before you visit sites, you can protect yourself from malicious sites BEFORE even going there!

Hovering over the icon will display a quick report for the site. Clicking on the icon will bring you to SiteAdvisor's website and display the full report showing exactly why it received the rating by SiteAdvisor.

Q How does SiteAdvisor help me surf the Internet safely?

A As you browse the Internet, the SiteAdvisor icon will display the safety rating of the site you are visiting. Then, you can make the decision to not download from a site if you see SiteAdvisor rates the site as poor or questionable. You can click on the icon to view the site's full report.

Q What are the different safety ratings?

A  SiteAdvisor has 3 different ratings for sites and one indicating a site has not yet been tested. If at anytime you want to know why a site was rated the way it was, just click on the safety rating icon to bring you to the SiteAdvisor report.

While searching, here are the 4 icons you will see to the right of your search result indicating the safety rating of that site. Keep in mind that sometimes well-known safe sites can be hacked or contain redirects to malicious sites and this will cause a warning even for sites marked as safe. See FAQ item for more info.

While surfing, the color of the SiteAdvisor icon in the browser indicates the safety rating:

or

This site has been tested and found no significant problems with adware/spam/viruses/downloads etc.

or

This site has been tested. Use caution when using these links. If you really want to go to the site, read the SiteAdvisor report first before proceeding. You may change your mind and find another site that has the same content you want.

or

This site has been tested and found to have failed too many of SiteAdvisor's safety criteria. We'd recommend avoiding these sites altogether. You can always click on the safety rating icon to read the full report.

or

This site has not yet been tested by SiteAdvisor. You can submit this site for testing by SiteAdvisor to get an accurate report of the risk of browsing this site.

Q How do I make SiteAdvisor work for me?

A As you search or surf the Internet, always being aware of the SiteAdvisor rating will be key. Never go to sites marked red as they are known to have failed the safety checks. Stay away from yellow sites if you can - or research why they have been rated yellow by clicking on the rating and reading up on the info found for that site.

Q What criteria does SiteAdvisor base it's safety rating on?

A You can see all the criteria that SiteAdvisor rates the site on by clicking on the SiteAdvisor safety icon. Here are all the criteria ratings used to determine the safety rating:

E-mail tests

• Totals amount of spam received once email is submitted to site)

Download tests

• Do files downloaded from the site contain adware, spyware or other unwanted programs?

Online affiliations

• Does it link to other bad/good rated sites?

Annoyances

• Does it use 3rd party cookies?

Reviewer comments

• Such as: spam, adware, spyware, browser exploits, bad shopping experiences, phishing or excessive popups)

The website owner's comments

• Website's owner's can comment on the safety of their own site.

Q This is great! Can I use this outside the office too?

Once you get used to using SiteAdvisor ratings when you surf the Internet, you'll soon depend on the ratings to help you decide which sites to visit and which sites to avoid.

McAfee also offers a personal use copy that you can download right from SiteAdvisor's site and install it at home. It works just like the Enterprise version you have on your CCC workstation at work. There is a plug-in for both Internet Explorer and for Firefox if you use that at home.

We can not support or help you with installing SiteAdvisor at home, so make sure you understand what you are doing, read their license agreement and keep on top of software updates.

Q Where can I go for more information on SiteAdvisor?

A For more information on how SiteAdvisor works, go to the SiteAdvisor site: http://www.siteadvisor.com.

Concerned about the safety rating of a site, but don't want to visit the site to find out whether it is malicious or not? You can go to SiteAdvisor's site and lookup the report without having to go to the site first.

Q When I go to a "green" site, I get redirected to a McAfee SiteAdvisor warning page with a "red x" on it?

A This is a case where you really want to be careful. One possibility is that the original "green" site, was recently hacked and now has code imbedded in it to redirect you to a malicious site that will attempt to breach your PC. You wouldn't know this was happening in the background, but because McAfee SiteAdvisor is aware of these malicious sites, it was able to warn you BEFORE being redirected to the malicious site.

For example, say you want to go to http://www.somewherethatssafe.com. When you attempt to go to that site as you've done in the past, instead of seeing their home page, you get the following warning:

This tells you that the initial page you attempted to go to (somewherethatssafe.com) was hacked and now contains a redirect to the site googlerank.info that McAfee blocked for you.

In this case, based on the fact that you KNOW you didn't want to go to googlerank.info, you wanted to go to somewherethatssafe.com, you do NOT want to override this warning and continue to the site. Best advice is to find another site to go to that has the info you want until the owner of the site fixes their website.

(Did you see how the hacker in the example above tried to make their site sound legit by naming it "googlerank.info"? This site is in no way connected to the company "Google, Inc." but most people probably wouldn't know that this is a well known hacker site in Russia.)