Free download of Firefox toolbar blocks phishing sites

M.E.2-2

Click Here to download from VNU Net

Netcraft has released its security toolbar for the open source Firefox browser, aiming to limit the threat from phishing scams by using a blacklist of known fraudulent websites.

rogue_element

There are rumours of this misbehaving so results are mixed.
I use this utility:
ShowIP http://l4x.org/site/node/1078

You can see the IP of the site you are looking at and query it with various whois sites, including netcraft.

Rex_Mundi

There was a scare a while ago that Firefox would fall for a phishing attempt (it displayed the wrong address in the address bar). This has been fixed in the latest versions. Firefox will show you the proper address now instead of the false one that a phisher wants you to see.

This is OK if you actually check the address of a web page before you use it. If you tend to just look at the web page rather than the address, then this addon is probably a good idea as it will block the page (as long as it's been reported already).

M.E.2-2

rogue_element wrote:

There are rumours of this misbehaving so results are mixed.
I use this utility:
ShowIP http://l4x.org/site/node/1078

You can see the IP of the site you are looking at and query it with various whois sites, including netcraft.

I think that was This that you are referring to but perhaps someone will know if it's not.

rogue_element

M.E.2 wrote:

I think that was This that you are referring to but perhaps someone will know if it's not.

No, I read slashdot.org and there were report of the following:

1)Tabbed browing not working properly
2)Some sites showing false results

It may be useful to some people, but what I dont really understand is that people who are clever enough to install and use firefox over internet explorer are also likely to be people who do not click on links in emails and who do not use programs like Outlook Express for their emails. I mean you are v.unlikely to be phished if you do not click on any dodgy links to online banks or ebay from your email, requesting you update your details etc etc. Also the black list sites feature is a little pointless as surprisingly the phishing sites are shut down v.quickly....

Jay1b

There has been a number of other security weaknesses highlighted recently. These have not all been fixed yet.

Personally i would recommend sticking to IE, that has pretty much been completely patched up now - also when a weakness is discovered, Microsoft often have the patch out and ready for people before the weakness is widely known.

lipidicman

I thought firefox 1.0.4 sorted this out. Also, none of these vulnerablitites have been exploited, have they? Scammers dont seem to hit firefox

Rex_Mundi

Personally i would recommend sticking to IE, that has pretty much been completely patched up now - also when a weakness is discovered, Microsoft often have the patch out and ready for people before the weakness is widely known.

WOW. I'm amazed that there are still people out there that think this way. The above advice is not only wrong. It is dangerous advice.

There are still security problems with IE that have not been patched despite MS knowing about them for over 12 months.

According to vulnerability monitoring service Secunia, 19 out of an estimated 80 security advisories for IE 6.x currently remain "unpatched" compared to four from a total of 15 Firefox 1.x advisories. Secunia says warnings for IE range into the category "highly critical" while outstanding Firefox alerts are "less critical".

The US and UK governements now advise people NOT to use IE to surf the web. A lot of top security companies also give out this advice. The way that IE works leaves it open to far more serious security flaws than Firefox (ActiveX still seems to be the biggest security hole)

Before I used Firefox as my default browser (I used IE). Every time I scanned for spyware I would find anywhere between 2 and 10 bits of it on my system several times a week. Since switching fully, I have not found any spyware on my system for nearly 3 months. This is a direct result of using Firefox.

I don't know how anyone can honestly say that IE is more secure than Firefox.

rogue_element

Jay1b wrote:

There has been a number of other security weaknesses highlighted recently. These have not all been fixed yet.

Personally i would recommend sticking to IE, that has pretty much been completely patched up now - also when a weakness is discovered, Microsoft often have the patch out and ready for people before the weakness is widely known.

You are joking right?
When you say "other" security weaknesses, do you mean with firefox or IE?

I just posted the secunia links too then saw someone else had beaten me to it!!