I think this is the same one we had up as news /article-5643-nested-0-0.html

I have it downloaded but haven't installed it yet. It sounds like it only works with IE under XP or 2K but I have some phishmails saved and will try testing it by poking the URL's into the address bar.

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Installation was simple and straightforward using the standard .msi installation. The toolbar immediately showed up as enabled in Manage Addons but I had to go to View|Toolbars and check it to cause it to display. Then the fun began!

I ran my most recent phishmail link through it and received an immediate block that advised me that the site was suspected of phishing activity and warning me away from it. It did offer me the choice of viewing it if I was sure that I really wanted to. That part works well but there is more.

Every site visited will display the flag of the country in which registered and the name of the owner of the IP block. A click on Site Report brings up the domain name, registrar, name servers, and reverse DNS on the IP address along with other information from a standard Whois. There is a simple interface for reporting suspected phishing sites as well. I have barely scratched the surface of what this can do but will certainly be keeping it. Perhaps the best news is that they do have plans to port the toolbar to other browsers. I hope that Firefox is high on their list.

I read their EULA thoroughly before installation and was a little taken back when I saw the following:

So far I have not seen any ads, unless you count the ones included when you follow links from the toolbar to suplemental services and information. None pop up unexpectedly and the ones on the other pages are rather innocuous.

I personally think that every copy of IE in the world should have this installed.

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Excellent!

Thank you

If we add a category in Reviews for Anti-Phishing products later today, would mind submitting your review on it? The more people who know about it the better.

I'll just post back in here once the category has been created.

I would be happy to!

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Excellent,

Paul will add it when he gets back a little later.

That is probably a valid criticism, Sandi. It took me a few tries to get that part figured out as well. As far as the majority of home users go, and I was thinking more in terms of the elderly, I was looking at the blocking function more than the research functions. I was not really thinking of the average user getting much useful info from the drop down anyway.

Nice links, btw.

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Here is the link to write reviews on anti-phishing products /wreview-31

If you see something I haven't added yet, please let me know.

I just received an obvious phish purporting to be from a bank that I don't use. The Netcraft bar failed to report it as a phishing URL so I went through the rather simple procedure of reporting it. I recieved this almost immediate reply:

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Then, about 10 minutes later I received this:

I immediately attempted to revisit the link using IE and the toolbar blocked it. I consider that to be a rather quick response on a Sunday.

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008

Good question, Ikester, and I thought it over for a while before responding.

The way I see it spam is primarily an annoyance. It gets in my way, I have to deal with it, and it clogs the inbox. Other than that it doesn't harm me. It can be dealt with in a number of locations by employing filters that are either based on concrete rule-sets, heuristics, or both.

Phishing exploits are somewhat different. They can mimic the addresses and appearance of legitimate sites and then be used to do great harm. They are not as easily identifiable to filters although some of the same techniques may be adaptable. In the purest sense an anti-phishing product would prevent you from visiting a phishing site in the event that the trigger email actually reached you.

The only product that I have experience with at the moment is the subject toolbar which depends on a database of known or suspected target URLs much as concrete rule-sets are used in fighting spam. There are problems with this approach as the target URLs are constantly changing and the phishers go to great lengths to make detection difficult.

The exploit that I described detecting arrived as an email consisting of a mapped .gif image so there was no text to analyze. If you are interested, I took it apart here.

As an aside, my web site, which is rather small and inconspicuous, was bombarded heavily during the santy attacks and I continue to see daily attempts at exploitation. Over 99% of the attempts are aimed at a single forum topic dealing with a phishing scam. Maybe it is coincidence but one has to wonder. I have also seen increased visits based on the results of a Google search. In every such instance so far it has been the result of someone searching (in English, Spanish, and French, so far) for a particular string in phishing emails.

_________________
MS MVP Security 2006-2008