10 Anti-Phishing Firefox Extensions

An anonymous reader writes "A list of 10 anti-phishing Firefox extensions was published at Security-Hacks: 'For most Internet users, defending against phishing attacks is a top priority. One popular way to combat phishing attacks is to maintain a list of known phishing sites and to check web sites against the list.'"

Comments

if only

[wizardforce]

For most Internet users, defending against phishing attacks is a top priority.

unfortunately it isnt, a lot of people ignore security measures designed to protect them from phishing. case in point, banks that used images/etc to show the authenticity of the website their customers use was largely ignored, few noticed it and similar studies show few have such security as one of their concerns. these extensions might have done good if people listened to them but the real fix for phishing is to educate people on ways to avoid going to the sites in the first place. typing in addresses instead of following links, paying attention to what comes after the tld and disabling javascript for starters.

And the top #1...

[funkdancer]

Is my bloody brain and eye superfilter combo. With these, I don't need any stinking slow-me-down-even-further plugins.

Clicking

[biocute]

How much phishing can be prevented if people stop clicking on hyperlinks, and use copy-and-paste instead?

Eh?

[Mystery00]

"For most Internet users, defending against phishing attacks is a top priority."

I think 'most' users would say "what the hell is phishing?" Only way to prevent phishing is to bring up a "Welcome to the internet, here are a few things you should know about before you go on: ... " splash screen when they open up their browser for the very first time.

...

Followed by another splash screen that says "If you ignored the previous information, you are now entering with the risk of doing something extremely stupid, would you like to bring up the Welcome screen again? [Yes] [Yes]"

Pointless

[quokkapox]

All of these anti-phishing tools are a waste of time. The real problem is educating users about safe computing practices.

People simply need to learn that you just don't click on a link in an unsolicited email supposedly from your bank, any more than you would deposit your paycheck into a newly opened bank branch in the nasty part of town, with shoddily painted signage and shifty-looking tellers.

98% of people can learn principles of safe computing. The remaining 2% are a lost cause. Instead of coddling people's ignorance, we should focus on education. Crooks are always going to be out there trying to take advantage of people. This problem is not going to go away or be solved by technological safeguards. It is counterproductive to devise and improve ways for people to continue ignorant, careless behaviour, "La la la, click on whatever links I see," download and run this, that and the next thing, rather than teaching them how to be careful about what code they run and where they type their password.