Antiphishing toolbar for Firefox released

Internet services company Netcraft has released a version of its toolbar for Firefox. The plug-in can help users of the Web browser avoid phishing scams, the company said.

The Netcraft Toolbar blocks phishing Web sites that have been reported by other users. A version of the plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been available since December of last year. More than 7,000 phishing sites have been detected and blocked since then, Netcraft, which is located in Bath, England, said on its Web site on Tuesday.

Phishing is a prevalent type of online fraud that attempts to steal sensitive user information such as user names, passwords and credit card information. The attacks typically combine spam e-mail and fraudulent Web pages that look like legitimate sites.

In addition to blocking phishing sites, the Netcraft toolbar includes other features to help users be more security-aware when surfing. For example, it includes a risk rating for Web sites, as well as information about the popularity of a site and the country in which the site is hosted, according to the Netcraft site.

The toolbar will also "trap" suspicious Web addresses based on the characters used and enforces display of the browser navigation buttons to defend against pop-up windows that may attempt to hide those buttons, Netcraft said.

The Firefox toolbar runs on any operating system supported by Firefox and is available for free download from Netcraft.

Is this a news article or advertisement?

.

[hion2000]

This is netcraft we're talking about here

This is yet another (well known) organization acknowledging that Firefox is a full fledge browser ready for prime time usage. Netcraft is the largest organization that monitors websites and provides loads of free services on their own website. If Google did something special for Firefox, I'm sure we'd here about it too.

P.S. Spreading info of this toolbar will increase its effectiveness.

[sanenazok]

it's a new product

that's always been within the realm of acceptable news. I for one am thankful, as this is something I need for some of the people at work and wouldn't have known about until a few days later, if ever. One lady was caught by a paypal type scheme, this might have saved some pointless work.

[George Cole]

acceptable news

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.analogstereo.com/cadillac_owners_manual.htm" target="_newWindow">http://www.analogstereo.com/cadillac_owners_manual.htm</a>

Other anit phishing toolbars

Fraudeliminator also has a pretty good Firefox anti phishing toolbar that's been out there for a while now. It's worked well when I've clicked on links in phishing emails I've gotten. Can get it from www.fraudeliminator.com

[webrunner69]

The drawback of FraudEliminator and NetCraft

The drawback of FraudEliminator and NetCraft is that they show you the server information not the owner information.
If a phisher posts a site in a well known domain server (angelfire, geocities...) these toolbars will not consider the site a threat becuase geocities is legit!

I prefer CallingID (<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.callingid.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.callingid.com</a>), it alwas shows the correct information instantly.