Microsoft has today announced two new free add-ins for their MSN toolbar.
The first is an anti-phishing add-in which, Microsoft says, is “the first such technology to be integrated into a Web search toolbar — currently offered in a beta version, helps provide powerful dynamic protection against phishing Web sites, a fast-growing class of online identity theft. Phishers create fraudulent Web sites that resemble those of legitimate businesses, financial institutions or government agencies to convince visitors to disclose sensitive personal and financial information that can then be used for criminal activity such as identity theft.”
Microsoft explains that if “a customer inadvertently visits a potentially fraudulent Web site that can steal the customer’s personal information, the beta Microsoft Phishing Filter Add-in will proactively help protect the customer. This new add-in uses a dynamic system that quickly checks the Web pages customers visit with an online service with up-to-the-hour information to see if the sites they visit are suspicious or actual reported phishing Web sites. The filter will block customers from entering personal data if the site is confirmed. If the Web site contains characteristics common to a phishing Web site, but is not in the list of known sites, the MSN Search Toolbar will provide a warning and give people the option to continue or close their tab in the toolbar.”
The anti-phishing add in works in three ways. First, it “compares addresses of Web sites a consumer attempts to visit with a list of reported legitimate sites that is stored on the consumer’s computer and updated periodically,” then it “analyzes the sites that people seek to visit for characteristics common to phishing sites,” and finally it “provides the option to automatically send Web site addresses that a consumer attempts to visit to an online service run by Microsoft Corp. that checks the address against a frequently updated list of reported phishing sites.”
The other free add-in is the new games add-in. According to Microsoft, “This tool delivers a pull-down menu of links to that day’s most-played games, with the option for people to add their favorites, join the action and see how many other gamers are involved. The Games Add-in lets users play a daily trivia question directly from their toolbar, and players can guess the answer or get a hint from MSN Search.”
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You can download the add-ins here, and download the toolbar here.
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Hi,
I am writing to ask if you know of any other cases in which Microsoft Internet Explorer has labeled a Web Site as “suspicious” and posted a pop up notice on the site declaring the site to be a “Phishing” site and warning visitors to have nothing to do with the site.
This is what happened to me and my web site. I only discovered the problem yesterday and I am trying to get Microsoft to remove their notice.
I had to fill out forms which asked why the site collects personal & financial information (it doesn’t do either, all our sales are done through Pay Pay or direct from our office) and what we do with this information? I filled out the form and within two hours received an email saying Microsoft would remove this notice within 24 hours – they haven’t.
I have no idea how long this notice has been on my site – I don’t use IE as a browser and only found this by accident. Although we have wondered why, despite getting numerous hits each day, no-one was buying the books we are selling. Ironically one of them is a book on bullying, which is what Microsoft is doing.
Depending on how long the pop up has been on my site I could have lost thousands of dollars in lost sales and this has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the site and of my company.
Obviously small companies doing sales over the net should be aware they must now check every every page on their site at least once a day or face ruin.
Do you know of any similar cases or can you offer any advice to prevent this from happening? Anything you can do to help or to broadcast this action by Microsoft would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Peggy Halstead
Brain Power Learning Group
Hey Folks….
let’s see…MS is offering a spoofing plugin to add to it’s SPYWARE??
ROTFF!!!
google SPOOFSTICK.
no spying.
no ads.
no redmond snoopers working for bush the younger snooping you.
it’s freeware, works great, and personally i reccomend it.
go here:http://www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/
screw Microsoft…first thing i do on any machine i’ve owned is uninstall their lame-ass spying toolbar and their even lamer messenger program.
wanna keep from getting spoofed?
try spoofstick….now for mozilla/firefox, too.
Hey Auntie, Did ya screw up???
how come i got the premium edition???
=)
thanks, and peace!!
pinkster