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Google on Tuesday said it will add malware download warnings to its Chrome browser.

The move has Google following the lead of rival Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer 9 also alerts users about questionable software downloads.

Google will use its Safe Browsing service to flag sketchy downloads, the company said in a post on a company blog. Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari already tap into Safe Browsing -- which identifies suspicious or unsafe sites and then adds them to a blacklist -- to warn users of dangerous sites before they actually visit those sites.

 Safe Browsing will also provide the data for Chrome's download blocker, said Google.

When a Chrome user tries to download a Windows executable -- a file with the ".exe" suffix -- from a URL on the Safe Browsing blacklist, the browser will display a warning that reads, "This file appears to be malicious. Are you sure you want to continue?"

Extending Safe Browsing to downloads helps shut a malware door, Google argued.

"A separate attack vector exists, which is a social engineering mechanism that attempts to convince a user to download and run a file," Google said in an email reply to questions Wednesday. "This new feature is designed to protect against that type of attack."

Chet Wisniewski, a security researcher at Sophos, a U.K.-based security vendor, agreed.

Computerworld has the article HERE!