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LinkScanner Enters SiteAdvisor Turf
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-07-21
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A new tool that preemptively detects dangerous URLs before a user can click on one has debuted from Atlanta-based Exploit Prevention Labs.
Other tools like McAfee SiteAdvisor perform a similar function. It scans the search results returned in a query on sites like Google or Yahoo, to flag them as safe, unsafe, or caution recommended.
LinkScanner works differently than the more well-known SiteAdvisor, Joe Chiarella, Exploit Prevention's product manager, said in a TechWeb report. "SiteAdvisor is not immediate and not empirical," Chiarella said. "Its information is not necessarily very fresh; we're instantaneous."
At this point though, it isn't a deep probing tool. TechWeb cited its tests of sites against Firefox 2.0b1 that were noted as phishing sites by the browser. LinkScanner did not identify those sites as risky. A quick test on our end showed it and SiteAdvisor both accurately recognized the URL of a particularly vicious warez site as unsafe; SiteAdvisor did provide more information about the site than LinkScanner did.
Exploit Prevention said on its site that LinkScanner is the first online application to use the company's recently released SDK. They plan to offer licenses for the SDK so other sites can incorporate the technology into their products.
More technology solutions that defeat criminal activity can only benefit the market and make life more difficult on those who would take advantage of others. Ultimately, it will take government activity on a global level, particularly in Russia and China, to eliminate these problems at the source.
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Tag: LinkScanner
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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