14 DAY TRIAL // Because phishing is a dangerous but more and more popular illegal activity, Google decided to include a powerful anti-phishing feature into the Firefox browser toolbar that is meant to protect users from hacked websites. Because the browser add-on is used by a lot of internet users, the Safe Browsing function was tested by most of them, sending useful reports and feedback to the company. Although it is meant to detect and inform the user about phishing sites, it seems like the function gives incorrect warnings about some websites that are surely clean.
This issue was reported by Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land that wrote in an article the browser warned him about a potential phishing activity on his banking service. "This week while doing my banking, I got to see a phishing warning actually happen through the Google - Firefox 2 partnership. It was also an incorrect warning, which made the experience even more interesting. Below, a look at what happened when I visited Citibank. I went to the CitiCards site, which I've long used. I typed in the URL, rather than doing a search for it. That meant I was pretty sure I'd hit the right site. Still, watching my browser screen go dark and this message was kind of scary," he said.
After Danny received the incorrect warning, he decided to report the issue to Google and visited the website especially created for these problems. Although for the users this incorrect alert is just a simple notification, because we have the option to continue to enter our information, just think about the companies that are rated as phishing attempts. It's not quite just a mistake, because visitors can trust the warning provided by the search giant and the browser and will avoid visiting the website.