Tip #4813 - Google's Phishing Warning
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Q:
I always use Google to search and lately, I've been noticing a new
warning that pops up under some of my search results. It says something
about phishing, but I'm not quite sure what it is. Do you have any
ideas?
A:
Yes, I do believe I know what
you're talking about! I actually just heard about this the other day,
so I'm glad you asked. An article about this was posted on WorldStart's
message board as well (thanks HARLEY), so it's definitely big news.
It's really just one more thing Google is doing to help keep us protected.
So, let's take a few minutes here and see what we've got!
First of all,
I just want to talk a little about phishing attacks. We all know that
phishing is a popular form of malware these days and unfortunately,
it seems to just grow and grow. One of the main phishing attacks is
spam e-mail and it's said that approximately 100 billion spam messages
are sent out on a daily basis. That accounts for 85 percent of all
the incoming e-mails we all receive in a day. That's just ridiculous!
Those figures really put into perspective how much phishing has gotten
out of hand.
Luckily, various
Web browsers and certain Web sites have added security features that
help fight against phishing attacks. For example, both Firefox and
Opera have an alert system that warns you when you're on a malicious
site. And with getting back to today's question, Google is now getting
in on the action too!
Google recently
added a new phishing warning to their Web site that shows up every
time you attempt to visit a site that is used in conjunction with
phishing. The warning pops up under your search results whenever you
click on a "bad" link. The message tells you that Web forgery
is suspected and it suggests that you go back to your search results
and try a different site. The warning looks something like this:
To my knowledge,
this new feature was put into place on April 21, 2008, so don't be
discouraged if you haven't seen it yet. It's only been active for
a few days. If you do a lot of searching with Google though, I'm sure
you'll see it soon. Now, in the past, Google has done the same thing
for other types of malware, but I just want to make it clear that
this one only focuses on phishing. So, really, with both of them put
together, you're 100 percent protected. And I don't know about you,
but I like the sound of that!
~ Erin
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