Oslo, Norway – December 18, 2006
Opera Software today introduced real-time FraudProtection in its award-winning Web browser. Fraud Protection includestechnology from GeoTrust, the leading digital certificate provider, andPhishTank, a collaborative clearing house for data and information aboutphishing on the Internet. Fraud Protection is available in Opera 9.1, thenewest version of Opera’s Web browser. Opera is available completely freeat www.opera.com.
“The key to an effective phishing defense is speed and responsiveness,”said security expert Bruce Schneier, CTO of BT Counterpane and an Operauser. “Opera’s Fraud Protection delivers both by providing the user withreal-time anti-phishing detection, augmented with nearly immediateidentification of suspected phishing sites.”
Phishing is a form of online fraud in which a malicious party convincesusers to visit a forged Web site. That site is designed to mimic a trustedsite in order to trick users into divulging personal information, creditcard numbers, or bank account details. According to PhishTank, the monthof November alone saw more than 9,628 unique phishing attacks. Since mostphishing sites are taken down quickly, only real-time protection holds thekey to consistent safety.
“We are thrilled that Opera chose PhishTank among all of the availablesources of phishing data,” said David Ulevitch, Founder of PhishTank andrespected member of the online security community. “Opera has long been aleader in innovation and usability and we hope Opera users find theaddition of Fraud Protection from PhishTank in Opera to be of value.”
PhishTank, operated by OpenDNS and community members, enables anyone tosubmit, verify, track and openly share phishing data. The open access ofPhishTank, and the use of PhishTank data in Opera, is intended toencourage the sharing of information and increase the chance ofeliminating phishing all together.
“Cyber-criminals are very active during the holiday season as more peopleventure online to shop or connect with friends and family,” said Jon vonTetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “At Opera, we work very hard to protectthe users of our products. We commit a lot of resources to ensure that ourusers are as safe as possible when they are online. Opera’s FraudProtection tool is something we have created with our partners to helpusers protect themselves.”
Fraud Protection extends the original anti-phishing capability in Opera.Opera 8 introduced the security information field to help determine if aphishing site was masquerading as a trusted and verified site. FraudProtection adds a new level of online safety by working in real-time toprotect Opera users from the latest phishing attacks. To learn more aboutOpera’s Fraud Protection and our ongoing commitment to security, pleasevisit www.opera.com/products/desktop/security.
About PhishTank
Launched Oct. 2, 2006 to coincide with National Cyber Security AwarenessMonth, PhishTank, operated by OpenDNS, employs a sophisticated votingsystem that requires the community to vote “phish” or “not phish,”reducing the possibility of false positives and improving the overallbreadth and coverage of the phishing data. PhishTank makes all phishingdata it accumulates public and available via programmable APIs, whichallow other software developers to incorporate the anti-phishing data intotheir tools. The open access is intended to encourage the sharing ofinformation and increase the chance of eliminating phishing all together.For more information about PhishTank, please visit www.phishtank.com.