Microsoft is planning to release an anti-phishing filter for Internet Explorer 6.0 (IE6) (the version we are using in WinXP). This new feature will further enhance the web browser and make it a more secure one. Microsoft Phishing Filter is suppose to be integrated to the forthcoming IE7, which will be due next year, but now it will be released ahead of originally planned schedule.

Quoted:
The Microsoft Phishing Filter will not only help provide consumers with a dynamic system of warning and protection against potential phishing attacks, but — more important — it will also benefit legitimate ISPs and Web commerce site developers that want to try to ensure that their brands are not being “spoofed” to propagate scams and that their legitimate outreach to customers is not confusing or misinterpreted by filtering software.

A preliminary version Microsoft Phishing Filter could now be offered as a free plug-in for the MSN toolbar as early as a few weeks from now. The plug-in will require users to be running version 6.0 of Explorer, and to have updated Windows XP with the SP2 security update. If a visited site is on a known list of suspect domains, or is believed to be spoofing a legitimate domain, the user will be alerted though a series of colour-coded alerts. So, it is something similar to the Netcraft Toolbar, which talked about it 3 months ago.