Web of Trust - WOT

In Brief

WOT means ‘Web of Trust’ which can be translated as ‘Internet/Trusted web’. It is a free and complementary module developed by WOT Services Ltd, in partnership with many known and specialised sites in security, such as Panda Security and which you simply install on your Internet browser.

The main objective of WOT is to provide Internet users with notes and classification of the websites visited by the user, as well as a warning when there is a risk, on the websites concerned:

• online fraud (phishing) • malicious websites • identity theft • presence of malicious codes • unwanted e-mail (spam) • unreliable online sales/e-commerce sites

Operating Mode

The simplest way to use WOT is a module that installs on a browser, including for example Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. There are versions in several languages.

It is also possible to consult the WOT classification for certain sites by entering the address on https://www.mywot.com/ without having to install the extension.

Once installed, the module allows you to rate the sites visited according to several criteria: credibility, confidentiality, etc. Similarly, at any time it is possible to see the ratings given by other Internet users, which allows you to get an idea on a site still unknown.

WOT works on a collaborative system: on Internet users who rate a website, and their evaluations are used by WOT to classify a site as potentially malicious or, on the contrary, trusted. But keep in mind: since all assessments are made by users, the results can sometimes be biased: a site developer will rate his site as very good in all areas! This is, however, qualified by the fact that WOT requires a minimum number of separate votes for a given website before communicating its classification.

WOT allows you to quickly see the score obtained by a site thanks to a simple icon that we will call ‘rating icon’. This represents a small circle which can display different colours: • dark green: the rating is excellent • light green: the rating is good • yellow: the rating is doubtful • orange: the rating is bad • red: the rating is very bad.

These ratings are indicative because they are based on testimonials from users who may have an interest in rating a site more or less favourably.