How can I best describe
Haute Secure, a yet to be released toolbar for Internet Explorer (x86 and x64). Well, we all know how successful the Phishing Filter has been at protecting web surfers from phishing sites - a big part of the success of the Phishing Filter has been the data sharing that happens - whether it be data sharing between Microsoft and various corporate data providers, or IE7 users sharing their phishing site discoveries with Microsoft.
The developers of Haute Secure are very aware of the new risks associated with Web 2.0, whether it be social networking, blogs, search engines, widgets or banner ads. Regular readers of my blog will know that such risks are a primary focus and interest for me as well - I've been right in the thick of the fight to get malware out of the various advertising networks and trying to shut down compromised web sites, and heaven knows I'm sick of having to carefully check blog comments just in case the URL of the poster is a malware or compromised Web site.
Haute Secure is a step towards using the same sort of communal mind-share that is the foundation stone of the Phishing Filter's success, but this time the target is malware. Users are protected as follows:
- Bad sites are blocked before they can load.
- Even if the site has not been encountered before, Haute Secure can stop sites from downloading malware via the use of behaviour based algorithms.
- Every time the software blocks a malware download, the incident is reported to Haute Secure's malicious link database. What was once an unknown bad site becomes a known bad site, protecting future visitors to the site who are using Haute Secure.
As you'll see from the screenshot below, Haute Secure installs a toolbar in IE7. It looks small, but it is kind of eye catching - the toolbar changes color, moving from a gray tone to red, and back again.
