Why is malware such a big problem currently? It can be summed up in a very simple set of terms about the human attention span: education and trust.

Google represents an excellent vendor to deliver both of these. They have the network, they have the eyeballs, they’re well known, and they could even forge relationships with antivirus researchers and honeypot networks. Their new product, which detects and warns about a specific malware; however, it could be the start of something extremely useful, if they take it to the next level.

In short, as the most broadly used search portal on the Internet, Google could also warn/educate users as to botnet infections coming from their IP addresses when they visit to raise awareness of these cyber parasites.

Modern day botnets rely on unpatched machines and software in order to do their dirty work. For example, the Rustock botnet consisted of compromised machines running Microsoft Windows. Disinclined to acquiesce to someone using their software to build the largest spam network in the world four five years, Microsoft managed to bring it down through a coordinated effort between the FBI, Internet service providers, and software vendors.

We’ve even seen a surprisingly robust botnet discovered and dissected by Kaspersky, the TDL-4 botnet infected over 4.5 million computers and used an encrypted network for command and control communication. It signaled the heyday of new botnet technologies that hide from traditional antivirus by lurking in the boot sector of a computer so that if it gets cleaned out, it can just reinstall itself.

The moral of the story within the rise of these machines?

Just like the usefulness of the Internet, the fight against viruses and malware has risen above and beyond the individual and has arrived at a community effort. If a compromised machine can ably camouflage itself from antivirus software on the machine, it means that we’re going to need efforts beyond the individual.

Google operates a network that not only combines data from a gigantic variety of sources but allows them to merge forces with antivirus and computer security researchers who run honeypots and other detectors. In fact, Google’s honeypots and other malware detection efforts work extremely well when combined with cloud-based redirection such as Cloud Flare. Botnets essentially use cloud-computing and –networking themselves to not just avoid detection, but to exponentially increase their payload capabilities for either spam or DDoS.

As a result, whenever one of these malware botnets swings into action, it manifests activity and that can be detected.

Google has the pull that could change the face of malware

This is precisely why the response to them must take place at both the individual level and the community level. In fact, if the new breed of malware is hiding from individuals they need to be warned that it exists on their computer—and if we’re lucky, told how to detect and remove it. Not everyone is tech savvy enough to run antivirus on their computers, and most antivirus software is subscriberware (people either cannot afford it or don’t feel like paying for it.) As a result, a lot of people are vulnerable.

That’s where Google steps in. A lot of people use Google. According to the Wikipedia article, Google receives several hundred million queries a day. That’s a lot of computers, and most of those are probably connected to pairs of eyeballs with thinking people behind them who don’t want to be host to some evil program. That’s the education: telling people that they’ve become an unwitting vector for malign software.

It’s also the origin of the next step which is trust. For anyone who uses the Internet, Google is a well-known search engine with an obvious stake in the health of cyberspace. Sure, we question them time-to-time when their products open us up to risks that erode our privacy and wonder at what they bring to the future, but in the end it’s brand recognition that will bring people around who see a warning pop up on their screens.

Unlike meatspace corporations, cyberspace corporations actually do build communities it’s about time that we leveraged that fact and used it to help clean up the neighborhood; and people like Cloud Flare, Google, Kaspersky, and others could turn the tide against malware.