Will A Reactive Anti-Phishing System Work?

from the gotta-start-somewhere dept

Realizing that phishing scams are a big deal these days, Symantec is now launching their own anti-phishing system to help combat the problem. Of course, since phishing relies more on social engineering to trick people into revealing their bank account, credit card and/or other private info, it’s hard to see how a company could launch an effective anti-phishing service. Symantec’s works the same way many early anti-spam systems worked: by creating a bunch of fake accounts, monitoring the results and using them to build a database of phishing sites to block. It certainly could help, but it might depend on how quickly it works. Unlike the situation with spam, where it’s not quite as awful if a few messages get through, a phishing site that still gets a bunch of victims is certainly problematic for those people. While it’s unclear if there’s any better solution, a reactive solution to phishing may just be too little too late.


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Comments on “Will A Reactive Anti-Phishing System Work?”

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Oliver says:

Pro-active, behavioral anti-phishing solution

An Austin startup called WholeSecurity has developed a pro-active, behavioral anti-phishing solution. Through a browser plug-in it behaviorally analyzes suspect web pages and can prevent a user from visting the spoof site.

The technology is being used by eBay in its toolbar:

http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5312105.html

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