Anti-Phishing Defense Toolbar - CyberDefender Toolbar Product Review

The Internet's Premiere Anti-Phishing Toolbar: CyberDefender MyIdentityDefender

August, 2008:

While there is no mature technology that defends against phishing web sites yet, CyberDefender has set the first benchmark of expectation this year with its new Cyberdefender "MyIdentityDefender " Toolbar freeware. This plug-in software is a very competent tool that is earning respect across the planet.

Pros:

• Successfully stopped 17 out of 17 phishing page tests.
• Simple, straightforward interface.
• Offers popup blocking and anti-spyware functionality, as well as anti-phishing functionality.
• It's freeware.

Cons:

• Some false positives; it seems over-protective, and actually warned me when I tried to log into one of my legitimate online bank accounts.
• Presentation and cosmetics seem unfinished when compared to other toolbars.

Overall: CyberDefender is a very favorable anti-phishing defense tool, especially when you consider the price. It is recommended to all IE users as one of the best no-cost anti-phishing tools of 2008.

How It Looks:
(screen samples of CyberDefender in action)

1. A known phishing site being entered into a CyberDefender browser.
2. The resulting CyberDefender warning screen.
3. A "Scam Audit" dialog box, available upon request on any page.
4. The CyberDefender Toolbar button choices.

MyIdentityDefender installs as a part of Internet Explorer, and works silently in the background as a type of intelligent guard dog. It doesn't bite the suspicious web page, but it definitely will bark. By using two special analysis techniques, CyberDefender watches every web page you open (especially via email links – the phisherman’s favorite delivery technique). When you do visit a suspicious web page, CyberDefender then triggers a full page browser warning, and stops you before you can divulge your password or identity.

When a CyberDefender warning pops up, you then choose your next step from three options:

1. You can perform a “Scam Audit”, which displays more information on the suspicious web page. (recommended)
2. You can stop browsing to that page altogether. (very recommended)
3. You can still choose to open the web page and enter your login ID and password (not recommended)

CyberDefender analyzes web pages using two techniques:

1. CyberDefender is programmed to look for common phishing patterns in the URL address, the web page code, and the layout of the page itself.
2. CyberDefender also compares every web page against a large dynamic database of known phishing scams.

In both cases above, whenever CyberDefender assesses that your current web page is a risk, it will stop you with a warning page, and offer you options to stop, perform a “scam audit”, or progress into the web site.

1. After three days of testing CyberDefender "MyIdentityDefender " toolbar, I must say that it does catch many online phishing scams in Internet Explorer 7. In fact, I would say it is CyberDefender is even over-aggressive and over-protective – it gave me a false positive when I was trying to log into my Bank of America online account.
2. I tested CyberDefender using 17 known phishing URL’s, and it caught every single one of them. While many hundreds of other phishing scams exist out there, Cyberdefender has inspired enough confidence in me to continue using it.
3. The price of this freeware makes CyberDefender worth trying for IE users. Sorry, Firefox fans… there is no CyberDefender Toolbar for Firefox yet.
4. I myself am looking forward to the Norton Confidential product being developed by Norton-Symantec. Until that time, I will continue using CyberDefender for my IE web browser.

Download CyberDefender MyIdentityDefender Toolbar: manufacturer's site