With IE 7, Green Means Go
News Posted 13/11/2006
Author: PV5150
Source: CNET News.com
A colored address bar is designed to be a sign that a specific site can be trusted, giving people the green light to carry out transactions there. It is a weapon in the fight against phishing scams, which use fraudulent Web sites. The idea is among the draft guidelines created by the CA Browser Forum, an organisation comprised of companies that issue certificates for Web sites and major browser makers.
Last week, Microsoft decided to adopt that draft version for IE 7, released last month. It plans to add the functionality in January. A primary concern is to help the targets of online scams, said Markellos Diorinos, a product manager for Windows at Microsoft. “If you look at the phishing problem today, it is usually about all the big brands that get hijacked,” he said. “We addressed the problem that we have at hand today, and that was one very important thing for us.”
But, in an interesting twist to the browser’s anti-phishing capacity, initially, only corporations will be able to get the online trust indicator–a rule that shuts out smaller businesses. While the CA Browser Forum is still working on final guidelines that would include all legitimate Web sites, those could take a while to complete.
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