Phishing help for Yahoo! users
As phishing nets spread wider, Yahoo! announces defensive 'seal'.
Web giant Yahoo! has announced plans to introduce a new anti-phishing system to help protect its
customers. The seal is a customizable personal logo, which will be included in login screens to help identify
genuine Yahoo! sites. The seal system, currently available to a limited user base, relies on cookies, so
is limited to a single machine and will be destroyed every time the cookies are cleared. Future plans include
making the technology more durable.
'Yahoo!'s efforts address an ever-growing problem,' said John Hawes, Technical Consultant at Virus Bulletin. 'In
recent weeks, warnings about phishing scams have been issued by US Universities, insurance companies and the IRS, by
Irish and Australian banks, and by the charity group Christian Aid. It seems anywhere money changes hands can be
a target for these increasingly sophisticated and unscrupulous crooks.'
Meanwhile Facternet, a provider of free web space, has decided to shut down two major hosting services, citing
the proliferation of users setting up phishing sites on their servers (read more
here).
Read more about Yahoo!'s seal system at Yahoo! news, and
check out the seal design page here.
24 August 2006
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