IE7 Defends Against Phishing Sites

[tesco]

In my opinion, the feature in IE7 Beta 1 that separates it from the rest of the web browsers is the all new phishing filter. 99 out of a 100 times, “you” know that those “update your paypal/ebay account” emails are bogus phishing sites – but millions of other people who surf the internet everyday don’t realize this. Phishing has become an epidemic on the internet, and the average person has become used and abused because of phishing.

Although the Phishing Filter is not in Vista Beta 1 (it will be incorporated into future releases), it is in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 for Windows XP. When your web browser navigates to an address, IE7 will (just as normally) connect to the web server and download the page. While IE7 is downloading the page, it generates an asynchronous call to a special database of phishing sites. If the database has the website marked as a phishing site, it will display a warning page instead of the actual page with options to close the window or continue to the page. If the page is not marked as a phishing site, IE7 will look at the downloaded page for things it determines phishing sites to have, and form an opinion whether the site is a phishing site or not. If IE7 thinks this is a phishing site, it will display a warning, and even allow you to report the site as a phishing site.

Ask the victims of identity theft how long it took them to get back to life before their identity was stolen - it's clear that the IE7 Phishing Filter is a feature that will save people more time then any other feature in web browsers. It’s nice that IE7 has Tabs and RSS support, but the Phishing Filter has put IE to the head of the pack.

http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/images/news/news_source.gif Source: extended64 (http://www.extended64.com/Article36.x64) | Neowin.net (http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=29717&category=main)

[asmithz]

I have never heard of the word Phishing before, but I get what it means. I am glad that there taking care of it, cause i have had a friend fall for it before. :-/

[tesco]

I have never heard of the word Phishing before, but I get what it means. I am glad that there taking care of it, cause i have had a friend fall for it before. :-/
Ya, it does sound like a great feature. :)

[Skiz]

Sounds nice. Now granny won't be calling me for help all the time. :lol:

Hey rossco, does this mean you're advocating the use of IE now? :ohmy:

[NooN]

hmm... sounds like I must try IE sometime...

but i'm not gonna stop using firefox... the best

[asmithz]

Im gonna switch to IE, they jsut need the mouse gestures, and i will be happy with it.

[dudevenezuela]

• phishing

n. duplication of a Web page that already exists in order to trick users into giving private or financial particulars or giving their password (Internet)

[tesco]

Sounds nice. Now granny won't be calling me for help all the time. :lol:

Hey rossco, does this mean you're advocating the use of IE now? :ohmy:
No, i haven't even got a chance to try it ebcause of my pirated key. :angry:

[clocker]

Excellent.

Now MS is going to step in and decide if the page I want to access is valid or not?
Great.

To me, this seems akin to slowing down all cars rather than teaching people to drive properly.

[IKT]

Excellent.

Now MS is going to step in and decide if the page I want to access is valid or not?
Great.

To me, this seems akin to slowing down all cars rather than teaching people to drive properly.

Um, excuse me? Most likely the list will be on your computer, and you wouldn't notice it, "teaching people to drive properly" is not possible, its the one reason Macs are so popular, because stupid people who can't be bothered learning how to surf the web without getting spyware, or opening e-mail attachments without getting a virus refuse to learn.

Not only that but MS is not going to step in and decide if the page is valid or not, you don't have to use IE, and it dosn't fully stop the page, it just puts up a warning, probably similar to the yellow bar up the top.

[Skiz]

No, i haven't even got a chance to try it ebcause of my pirated key. :angry:

Is it out??? Windows hasn't asked me to update to it and I can't be arsed to visit the M$ homepage. :lookaroun

[GepperRankins]

Excellent.

Now MS is going to step in and decide if the page I want to access is valid or not?
Great.

To me, this seems akin to slowing down all cars rather than teaching people to drive properly.
you'd be acting like this is the best thing in the world if it wasn't MSIE :dry:

[tesco]

No, i haven't even got a chance to try it ebcause of my pirated key. :angry:

Is it out??? Windows hasn't asked me to update to it and I can't be arsed to visit the M$ homepage. :lookaroun
Nope, beta. ;)

[GepperRankins]

Excellent.

Now MS is going to step in and decide if the page I want to access is valid or not?
Great.

To me, this seems akin to slowing down all cars rather than teaching people to drive properly.
you'd be acting like this is the best thing in the world if it wasn't MSIE :dry:


just a thought. will this process be used to stop us visiting sites they don't want us to see for other reasons. can bittorrent and al qaida be filtered through this

[MCHeshPants420]

its the one reason Macs are so popular, because stupid people who can't be bothered learning how to surf the web without getting spyware, or opening e-mail attachments without getting a virus refuse to learn.


Did I fall into an alternative universe where Macs have become popular? :blink:

@TheDave: That would be my worry. They can block phishing sites (which I agree with) but will they then start blocking their own list of undesirable sites as well? Al-Quaida sites...Bittorrent sites...Linux sites...etc.

[clocker]

you'd be acting like this is the best thing in the world if it wasn't MSIE :dry:
That's not at all true.
I have never been a member of the anti-MS Brigade.

Lately however, I have become annoyed by the ever increasing number of "warnings", "alerts" and general nags generated by security programs.

Installing SP2 automatically starts IE blocking downloads till you click on the yellow bar....
Zone Alarm is always amazed that svchost.exe wants to access the internet and needs permission to allow it...
AVG seems to want to update 10 times a day and then requires a pat on the head after doing so....
SpySweeper/MS Antispyware beta don't seem to approve of anything and really need to talk about it NOW!.

It seems that the trend in security is to stop you from doing anything.
After all, if you don't touch any buttons ever, your machine is pretty damn safe.

Look at the excellent way that AOL has implemented "spam filters"...they basically just refuse mail from everybody, all the time and then claim amazing reductions in spam.
Well, duh.

When I first installed the MS Antispyware beta release several months ago, it bitched when I went to Windows update, fer crissake.
How well researched and how current is the "phish filter" gonna be and how often will it be in my face about it?

[Busyman]

Sighhhhhh, people bitch and complain about security and then when they get it..they uhhhh bitch and complain. :dry:

Sounds like you either live with security or not and better yet, pick the best product that you can live with.

If I type www. mastercrd. com and M$ identifies it as a security risk, good on them.

I don't see how I've been inconvenienced. It would be worse if I put my account information on the site.

[dantana]

IMO, I think it's a good idea, I just don't trust M$. I'd feel much more comfortable if the database of sites was to be maintained by some non-profit security group.