November 17th, 2008

Apple turns to Google for Safari anti-phishing

Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 9:58 am

Categories: Apple, Arbitrary Code Execution, Browsers, Data theft, Firefox, Google, Malware, Microsoft, Mozilla, Passwords, Phishing, Spam and Phishing, Spyware and Adware, eBay

Tags: Google Inc., Apple Safari, Apple Inc., Phishing, Cyberthreats, Spam, Viruses And Worms, Security, Spam And Phishing, Ryan Naraine

Apple has quietly teamed up with Google to add anti-phishing features into the latest version of the Safari browser.

The feature, turned on by default in Safari 3.2, displays a warning page (see screenshots below) when Safari users surf to a fraudulent Web site.  It is powered by Google’s blacklist of fake Web sites that are used to steal user credentials for banking and other finance-related Web sites.

[ SEE: Apple fixes 12 Safari security flaws ]

Here’s the roadblock that appears when Safari is used to surf to a phishing site:

Apple is the last major Web browser provider to add anti-phishing protection. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera all provide warning mechanisms to end users.