"Users of the Firefox Web browser have been flocking to Netcraft's Web
site to download the security company's new anti-phishing toolbar.
The free toolbar, released last week, was downloaded more than 60,000
times within hours of its release, according to Netcraft Internet
Services Developer Paul Mutton. By comparison, the company's
anti-phishing toolbar for Internet Explorer has been downloaded about
100,000 times since its release earlier this year, he says."
"Netcraft's anti-phishing toolbar seeks to thwart these kinds of threats
by blocking access to reported phishing sites. Once the first recipients
of a phishing e-mail report the URL of a fake site, the site is blocked
for toolbar users.
Netcraft checks each reported site to verify that it is phony to avoid
blocking legitimate sites, Mutton says.
The toolbar also displays the hosting location and a risk rating for
each site visited. While the product is free for Internet users,
Netcraft licenses a version to organizations such as banks to put their
own brand on.
Netcraft has no plans to offer versions of the toolbar for other browsers.
"There's no other browser as popular as Firefox right now," Mutton says."
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/053005-firefox.html>
Anti-Phishing toolbar: <http://toolbar.netcraft.com/install>
©2005 Bill Anderson |
