Even Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon to make Google’s Chrome browser even better. While Windows does have its own, and arguably safer browser (Edge), Microsoft has also released an extension for Chrome that will help further prevent phishing attacks from becoming successful. And bonus! It works on every operating system, except for Chrome OS.
While Edge has been said to protect against 99% of phishing attacks, Google’s Chrome built-in feature only catches about 87%. Neither are shabby numbers, but the Microsoft extension adds just a bit more protection for those who really want to do everything they can to not get taken.
However, that doesn’t mean you can just stop looking out for phishing. While these tools will catch a lot of them, they will not get all of them and it just takes one click to get yourself into a world of technological hurt. It’s still necessary to be on your toes. Remember, that not every URL is going to be in the lists that these or other companies have. It’s really impossible for that to happen, even if they are continuously updating those lists. Hackers can be a very tricky lot. They change their tactics, shut down and open new website URLs on a constant basis. No matter how good the tools, they will not stop all the attacks.
And these browser tools are limited to just that…browsers. They won’t catch the phishing attempts that come in through your email. Those are getting even trickier to detect by anti-malware and anti-spam tools as well as by our brains.
So, keep the basic phishing spotting tips in mind, especially when there is a link or attachment in the message:
- If it isn’t expected, question it.
- If the sender is unknown, question it.
- If the message doesn’t provide a description or any personal message about a link or attachment, question it.
- If it has typos, language mistakes, or looks unprofessional, question it.
- If it just doesn’t seem legitimate, question it.
Take a moment to pick up the phone, walk over to a colleague’s work area, or send a text to confirm any links or attachments that don’t seem quite right. If they happen to be phishing, you’ll be glad you took those few moments to make sure.