WyzGuys Tech Talk

Four years ago a consortium of Internet companies started a joint venture with the Berkman Center at Cambridge University called StopBadware.org.  This group was to become a central clearinghouse for new malware threats and malware infected web sites.  They recently were spun off to become a private corporation.  I received a press release from them this week.  I am reprinting it below.

“REINTRODUCING STOPBADWARE

Four years ago today, StopBadware.org was announced as a Berkman Center project, with the ambitious goal of fighting badware by building and sharing knowledge through the collective efforts of the community. As the project has evolved, our activities have changed, but the goal has remained the same. So, too, have the tremendous spirit and support of the dedicated individuals and organizations that make our work possible.

Over the past year, our small team has worked with the Berkman Center leadership, our corporate partners, our advisory board and working group, and other key volunteers to figure out how we could make StopBadware even better and how we could lay a strong foundation to carry the organization forward as we enter our fifth year. During this process, we made the difficult decision to leave the Berkman nest and spread our wings as an independent organization.

After months of planning, fundraising, paperwork, and more planning, the time has come. This morning, we announced that the work of StopBadware.org has migrated to StopBadware, Inc., a new non-profit organization based here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While we have dropped the .org for vanity’s sake—it becomes cumbersome to say "StopBadware dot org" all the time—the spirit (and finances) of a .org still apply. In fact, even with the generous backing of our partners, Google, PayPal, and Mozilla, it will be more important than ever for individuals to contribute to our success. Some of our most important work is done by people who contribute their time, whether assisting website owners at BadwareBusters.org, coding for LittleVoice, or getting involved in some other way.

In celebration of this new stage of our existence, we’ve updated our logo and colors, as well as some of the content on our website. Over the next few months, watch for more changes, both aesthetic and substantive, as we embark on this new adventure. As always, we welcome your feedback and guidance.

Finally, we want to express our gratitude to our founders and principal investigators at the Berkman Center, Professor Jonathan Zittrain and Professor John Palfrey, to Berkman’s executive director, Urs Gasser, and to the Berkman Center staff for making the past four years—and the future—of StopBadware possible.”