A consumer watchdog company called Which? claims that Google’s Chrome browser does not recognize the vast majority of phishing websites.
The study included the top 800 newly discovered phishing websites and Chrome managed to only block 28% of them in Windows and 25% on macOS. In contrast, Firefox redirected users away from 85% of those websites on Windows and 78% on Macs.
Google, however, thinks results are bogus. Here’s what it had to say:
This study’s methodology and findings demand scrutiny. For more than 10 years, Google has helped set the anti-phishing standard — and freely provided the underlying technology — for other browsers. Google and Mozilla often partner to improve the security of the web, and Firefox relies primarily on Google’s Safe Browsing API to block phishing — but the researchers indicated that Firefox provided significantly more phishing protection than Chrome. It’s highly unlikely that browsers using the same technology for phishing detection would differ meaningfully in the level of protection they offer, so we remain skeptical [sic] of this report’s findings.
Phishing scams usually come in the form of an email or text message with links to a fraudulent website disguised as an official login page for a legit company. Web browsers like Chrome and Firefox try to filter out these suspicious websites.
Phishing scams are most easily mitigated at the user level. In other words, users should be suspicious of emails asking for information or requesting they log into a website, no matter how official the email or website may appear.
Some of the signs to look out for include poor grammar or spelling and unusual URLs, though we should also add that hackers are getting better with the day.
So in a way, your best bet against phishing scams is to educate yourself about them. The general rule is that if the offer is too good to be true – chances are, that is indeed the case.
And finally, watch out for those “warning emails” that require you to act quickly. In most cases, these tend to be phishing emails.
Also read: What is a Phishing Email? and Here’s How to Avoid Phishing Scams.