3Com security division, TippingPoint, has launched what it claims is the first comprehensive network-based solution to block phishing attempts and guard against identity theft.

According to TippingPoint, its Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) product line uses a variety of mechanisms to detect and prevent phishing scams including vulnerability protection, pattern-matching protection, and behaviour-based protection.

Phishing occurs when a perpetrator masquerades as a legitimate organisation in order to obtain personal or financial information from an individual and use it for malicious purposes. Since phishing scams usually appear to originate from a trustworthy source, they are extremely difficult to prevent and can be very costly to those who fall prey to them.

There are several steps used by phishers in the process of identity theft, and the TippingPoint IPS blocks these attempts at every phase.

In order to launch a campaign, phishers compromise a legitimate site or server by taking advantage of programming flaws in the website code and system flaws in the server. Once a phishing site is in place and appears as the legitimate site of a well-known institution, phishers send mass emails to draw people to the site.

There are specific criteria we look for to determine if the website is legitimate, if the email is coming from a phishing mass mailer tool, and if the design guidelines for websites, emails and links are accurate,Ӕ said Tod Beardsley, lead counter-fraud engineer for TippingPoint.  Because we are using behaviour-based and vulnerability detection methods, we are able to block thousands of phishing scams.Ӕ

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