Last year, Microsoft had announced that Internet Explorer 7 managed to redirect users from 1.2 million phishing attacks between October 18 - the browser's launch - and November 3, 2006. Now IE's performances have increased to the point where it performs in excess of 1 million blocks a week. The figures have been made public at RSA 2007, the same place where just two years back, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveilled Internet Explorer 7, and one of its major new additions in terms of features, the Phishing Filter.

In the few months that IE7 has been available, the browser has protected users from accessing phishing websites over 10 million tomes. "Today, at RSA, we reported updated results on the Phishing Filter. Since IE7 launched in October, the Phishing Filter has blocked more than 10 million attempts to visit known phishing websites - and is currently experiencing a rate of over 1 million blocks a week. IE7 users and our data providers are adding nearly 10,000 Phishing sites every week to help protect our community of users," informed Jeremy Dallman, IE Program Manager.

Microsoft is continuing its work to improve the security in Internet Explorer 7. Also at the RSA 2007, the Redmond Company has announced that IE7 is the first browser to support the next generation SSL Secure Socket Layer Certificates, the Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates.

Additionally, Microsoft has announced the addition of four new phishing data providers to its Phishing Filter Service. In this regard, Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT), BrandProtect, My Space.com and NetCraft will be integrated into the Microsoft Phishing Service as data feeds.

"Together with our current partners (Cyveillance, Digital Resolve, Internet Identity, Mark Monitor, RSA) and our IE7 users, who continue to report great leads to us, we hope this will continue to improve the effectiveness of our Phishing Filter," added Dallman.