07.14.06
Firefox 2 Beta 1 Phishing Protection
Firefox 2 Beta 1 contains a built anti-phishing feature which warns users when they encounter web forgeries, and offers to return the user to their home page. You can test the feature at this test site. If you encounter a web forgery and don’t see the anti-phishing warning, or do see the warning for a site that isn’t actually a web forgery, you can let us know about the problem and we’ll update our lists of known web forgeries.
Phishing is a form of identity theft that occurs when a malicious web site impersonates a legitimate one in order to acquire sensitive information such as passwords, account details, or credit card numbers. Phishing attacks usually come in the form of an email message that attempts to lure the user into updating their personal information on fraudulent, but very real looking, web sites.
Phishing Protection is turned on by default in Firefox 2 Beta 1, and works by checking the sites that you browse to against a list of known phishing sites. This list is automatically downloaded and regularly updated within Firefox 2 Beta 1 when the anti-phishing feature is enabled. Since phishing attacks can occur very quickly, there’s also an option check the sites you browse to against an online service such as Google for more up-to-date protection. This enhanced capability can be turned on via the Anti-Phishing preferences pane. (Note: final set of anti-phishing service providers TBD.)
When using Phishing Protection in default mode, no information is sent to Mozilla or anti-phishing partners. Rather, sites are check against a local list that is downloaded and updated on a regular basis. When sites are checked against remote services such as Google (note: final set of anti-phishing service providers TBD), the Web site address is sent over a secure SSL connection.
Viewed 198 times by 105 viewers
