Could a social system where a community of users could rank the quality and security of a Website be effective at controlling phishing, fraud and in general disreputable sites from damaging the Internet and the society that uses it? Professor Audun Josang of the Queensland University of Technology thinks so. “For example most people are able to recognize a website that tries to trick them into giving confidential information (a phishing attack) when they see it,” he said in a release. “With [a social control] system, aware users can rate such websites as malicious and as a result a phishing site will be quickly and universally recognized as dangerous, warning unsuspecting users against visiting that site.” Professor Josang said using this social control approach could provide protection against this type of online threat, by preventing attacks before they occurred. Social control methods he notes are also known as soft security, where protection from a given situation is done in a quiet and unobtrusive way. Some experts say such a system is akin to “a moral network in a tightly-knit community such as a cluster of friends on a busy city street.”
According to Josang such systems would best be tied into search engine technology. “This project is about a new type of internet security that can be supported by search engines, ” he said. “I think in the future reputation systems, integrated into search engines, can be used to weed out such websites by giving them a low ranking and thereby making them invisible to unsuspecting users.” Professor Josang said in today’s technologically advanced world of business, high ranking of a company’s web page was a crucial factor for its success. “This is why the control of search engines is so important and why it can be financially worthwhile for businesses to manipulate the system.” Reputation systems make it possible to identify and sanction those participants who breach the norms and to recognize and reward members who adhere to them, Josang said. Reputation systems are not new. In this white paper, the authors say reputation systems are in use all the time. Bizrate.com for example, rates registered retailers by asking consumers to complete a survey after each purchase. EBay is another example of a large scale system of trust and reputation. And there is plenty of other interest in the notion of reputation systems. For example, on Paul Resnick, a professor with the University of Michigan’s site there are lots of papers on the subject.
