Slashdot Mirror
Netcraft Releases Anti-Phishing Toolbar
AgainstHate writes "Netcraft has released an Anti-Phishing Toolbar that provides detailed information about the website you are visiting (sites' hosting location, country, longevity and popularity) at all times to help users to validate fraudulent URLs. It also natively traps cross site scripting and other suspicious URLs. The toolbar also enables users to report phishing attacks to Netcraft, thus blocking any other unsuspecting users from being harmed (Netcraft supervisor validation is used to contain the impact of any false reporting). Currently the toolbar is only available for IE but a Firefox version is under development."
Netcraft confirms it. Only /. readers are ever going to use this.
*ducks*
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered phishing community when IDC confirmed that successful phishing attempts have dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all phish-mails sent out. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that phishing has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Phishing is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive scam list.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict phishing's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Phishing faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for phishing because phishing is dying. Things are looking very bad for phishing. As many of us are already aware, phishing continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of fish-blood.
CitiBank phishes are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core spam-relays. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time phishmeisters developers Gordon "Bassmaster" Hubble and Frank "Fifth Third" Blackman only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Phishing is dying.
Fact: Phishing is dying
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
you figure out a way to do that and let us know. PS its not possible
From: admin@netcrapht.com
To: slashdottroll@hawtmail.com
Date: 2004/12/28
Re: We've announcted a new anti-Phishing control bar for your browser! To take advantage of this amazing free offer, just login here and register using your name and Bank One check number! Don't delay. You will also be eligible for a free u-n-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-y diploma!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
MSN, Google, hi5.com, Netcraft, Yahoo, AOL's....
:)
So guys, when will the Slashdot Toolbar come out?
That's it. I'm boycotting Firefox. Once Joe Sixpack gets his hands on it, there will be all sorts of spyware and scumware specifically targeted at Firefox lusers.
I recommend Opera for those of us who must use an unpopular browser to save face.
Speaking as my family tech support geek (which I think most of us on /. can relate to) I think this tool will be highly useful for people who know nothing about phishing scams as yet another barrier *I* will install for them.
While a year wouldn't be enough time to educate all my relatives and friends on the various and ever-changing intricacies of PC web security, it's very useful to be able to install an app and tell them 'Look, if this thing pops up a big red warning, do what it says so you don't get a virus!' I've switched over everyone in my family to Firefox, all they care about is that it works pretty much the same for their needs as IE did. The google toolbar to block popups, zone alaram to catch other nasties, autorunning spybot and a coolwebsearch sweeper - these are all programs that make their web use look savvy but they ultimately have very little knowledge about. Now that my mom has started using the internet to buy things, no doubt she'll eventually get a phishing scam at some point relating to eBay or Amazon, with this toolbar hopefully now I can just set it and forget it and not worry as much that she's going to give all her bank info to some fake eBay site.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Toolbar User Terms
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We welcome comments or suggestions on h
Ha! I suspected this as soon as I saw that it was coming out for IE first...
Saving $20 by spending 20 minutes doing it yourself -- Priceless.
Uh, no, not "priceless". $20. Unless you've got some kind of rare $20 bill that was painted by a famous Italian artist or something.