Browser developers team up on security

Browser developers including Mozilla, Microsoft and Opera are seeking to create a standard method of providing surfers with more information about the trustworthiness of a website. 

Several developers met in Toronto last week to discuss ways to collaborate, although the talks are still at an early stage.

The initiative aims to use the information provided in digital security certificates to help users identify phishing websites, which try to fool individuals into giving up sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

"We are trying to get a common set of guidelines for the so-called high insurance certificates that are common for e-commerce sites," Frank Hecker, director of policy for the Mozilla Foundation, told vnunet.com.

"Provided we get those common guidelines, we then want to look at different user interfaces to distinguish Amazon.com from my personal blog, for example, so that users can tell that Amazon.com is a different kind of site."

Individual browser developers have already done some work to help users catch phishing websites. Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer 7, for instance, will colour the location bar red when a user visits a known phishing site.

"We want to take the experience in the address bar a step further to help create a positive experience for rigorously identified [secure] sites," said Rob Franco, lead programme manager for Internet Explorer security, on Microsoft's IE Blog. 

The company proposes to make the bar turn green and display a padlock symbol, and to list the names of the institution on the digital certificate and the company that issued it.

Opera has incorporated a special anti-phishing bar in its current browser version that displays information about a website.

See also:

Liverpool fans duped by phishing scam

You've won £500,000 in a special lottery! Simply give us your bank details!  22 Nov 2005

Get-rich-quick spam rises as porn flops

Lose £££ (and your liberty) working from home  10 Nov 2005

Phishers target Google users

Free money? Bound to be legitimate ...  09 Nov 2005

Chip and Pin drives fraudsters online

Credit and debit card fraud down 13 per cent, but problem has moved online  08 Nov 2005

Computer records hold key to fraud cases

80 per cent of cases involve computer analysis, says report  18 Oct 2005

Banks told to take responsibility for phishing

Security expert says that only financial institutions can end the problem  17 Oct 2005

Security firms warn of smarter viruses

Botnets fuel alarming growth in spyware  30 Sep 2005

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