Published Online:September 2013
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Information Technology
Product Type:Article
Product Code:
Author Name:Swapan Purkait
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Engineering
Download Format:PDF
Pages:24
Preventing Phishing Attacks with Virtual Browser Extension Swapan Purkait* The scale of phishing problems has necessitated a response to help protect vulnerable users. As a consequence, anti-phishing and wider identity protection features are a commonplace within both web browsers and Internet security suites. A huge number of phishing defences are available. These solutions range from quick fix changes to more substantial redesigns. With all these counter measures readily available, researchers have found that many users cannot distinguish a legitimate website from a spoofed website; they have also found that browser security indicators are misunderstood or ignored frequently, and many users have never even noticed them. In this study, we propose Virtual Browser Extension (VBEx), a web browser plug- in, which works on binary principle of legitimate or phishing and provides a trusted path between browser and the legitimate website. Unlike others, it does not provide any user interface to accept any wrong certificate or allow user to bypass the tool. It allows only a legitimate site to open and prevents all others from loading on the web browser. Our new solution checks for the authoritative name server and verifies the same for a visiting website. It also maintains a white list of websites so that when a user requires to access any of these, the default protocol should always be HTTPS, failing which it will prevent the web browser from loading the requested website. We conducted a series of laboratory tests on the VBEx prototype and found that the VBEx is a promising approach. Keywords: Phishing, Virtual Browser Extension (VBEx), Phishing countermeasures, Security indicators, Phishing toolbars
The Internet is rapidly transforming the way we communicate, educate, buy and sell goods and services.Life is about a mix of good and evil, so is the Internet or cyberspace.For all the good it does to us, cyberspace has its dark sides too.Unlawful conduct involving the use of the Internet is just as intolerable as any other type of illegal activity.