Researchers Battle Against 'Badware'.

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Author: Kiernan, Vincent

With the financial backing of the information-technology behemoths Google and Sun Microsystems, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Oxford are starting a project intended to stem the online tide of spam, spyware, and other "badware."

The "multiyear, multimillion-dollar effort," says one of its two directors, John Palfrey, is called StopBadware (http://stopbadware.org). It is run by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, where Mr. Palfrey is executive director, and the Oxford Internet Institute. Initially it would employ about 12 full- and part-time workers, he said, declining to be more specific about its budget.

"We want to start a nonprofit sort of a Manhattan Project," said Jonathan Zittrain, the other director, who holds Oxford's chair in Internet governance and regulation. At first, he said, the focus will be on developing voluntary technical standards for software that would eliminate flaws now exploited by developers of badware. Consumers could use information developed by the project as a guide to choosing software.

Eventually, said Mr. Zittrain, the project may promote the development of downloadable tools for tracking badware across the Internet.

The researchers hope to harness consumer power to pressure software makers to produce better code. Creative computer programming has been key in the growth of the Internet, but lax code writing has left defects that badware takes advantage of, said Mr. Zittrain. Government regulators do little to promote high technical standards for software, he said.

The project's results would be made freely available, said Mr. Zittrain, adding that corporate sponsors would have no involvement in the research. The Lenovo Group, a Chinese company that recently bought IBM Corporation's laptop business, is the third corporate sponsor. Consumer Reports WebWatch, which rates Web sites, is advising the researchers.

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By Vincent Kiernan