SiteHound - Security For Your PC

This is a particularly pertinent topic these days. Only last month I introduced the Netcraft Toolbar as an anti-phishing tool, and I follow up this month with a personal practical application of that protection. And I saw a beta of IE7 recently that includes the same protection.

Now Firetrust, the company that sells the anti-spam applications MailWasher and MailWasher Pro., has released a powerful package that addresses this problem and more.

On installation SiteHound appears as a  toolbar below the Address toolbar for IE, giving quick access to Options, Help and Site Information. In this last item it does not provide the wealth of detail available from Netcraft - only the Site Owner Information (Registrant); Site Owner IP Address;  Country; and Site Location Information (Registrar). But it is certainly adequate and I suppose one could argue that the protection is what counts, and an excess of information might be confusing or even unwelcome. The SiteHound Status cycles between the number of rogue sites, the number of users currently protected, and the update status of the database.

SiteHound comes in two flavours, free and registered, and it is only in the registered version that this Site Information image is available. Once installed SiteHound requires registration to create a user ID in order to use the software. This is sent as email and entered in  the user account to activate the program SiteHound maintains an extensive database of malicious websites that is constantly being updated by security experts assisted by the user community. Database updates can be scheduled in the registered version and will automatically update every day. Unregistered users must check manually to ensure that they always have the latest additions. You are encouraged to report suspicious sites by filling in the eminently clear form provided by the toolbar. The report asks that you categorise the URL when it is not patently obvious, and defines a number of categories including Adware, Phishing, Adult material, Scams, Spyware and so on.

SiteHound provides protection when browsing the Internet by raising an alert when you enter a site that is known to be fraudulent, offensive or associated with spyware. It does not block you from visiting the site, but warns you and leaves the option up to you.The enhanced version has a more informative graphical presentation, and subsequently provides a wealth of additional information on the nature and perpetrator of the threat.

• Fraudulent claims or scams.
• Offensive material.
• Security vulnerabilities.
• Spyware or Adware.
• Spam related material or other content deemed to be unsafe.
• Thousands of fake bank and credit sites.
• Tens of thousands of pornographic and adult sites.
• The endless fake phishing and pharming sites.
• Adware sites, which can infect you with spyware and adware if you visit them.
• Downloading software which may infect your computer with spyware and adware.

With the amount of malicious software increasing almost exponentially these days it is becoming essential to prevent attacks rather than recover from them, and that is the approach taken by the producers of SiteHound. It may well replace other software we have become almost reliant on. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Enjoy your computing.        Terry Bibo