Ok, I know…IE and it’s security usually do not end in a positive conversation, but it looks like the previous security woes of IE are being replaced with a few awesome upgrades. Enter the SmartScreen Filter.
The Internet Explorer 8 Smart Screen Filter uses the following technologies to make your browsing experience a safe one:
- Server Reputation – If a server (a website) ever distributed malware it will be marked as an unsafe website to visit. While this is indeed powerful I can see a lot of “trouble” for Microsoft if they do not maintain their blacklist and/or respond to de-listing requests. Can you imaging a site on the scale of a walmart.com being marked as “unsafe”??!?!
- MSRT – IE8 uses signatures from the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and scans any file when a user attempts to download one. This is a feature you will NOT find in any other browser! Executable scanning is long over due and very welcomed!
- OneCare – IE8 uses signatures from Microsoft’s antivirus product called OneCare. Again Awesomeness!!!
An Unsafe Website
An Unsafe Download
This is really a step in the right direction for Microsft’s Internet Explorer and I hope they keep giving us great upgrades like this in the future.
Wanna see smartscreen in action? I thought so! Check out the video below. I try to load 10 malicious URL’s using IE8…let’s see how it does:
