Desenmascara.me

How to verify whether a website is legitimate or not?: desenmascara.me

martes, 5 de diciembre de 2017

Prediction: Safe Browsing technology will detect counterfeit-related websites

I will make only 1 prediction for 2018, which I firmly think later or sooner will be a reality. Some major technology such as SafeBrowsing will detect and flag counterfeit-related websites. I have been working on detecting this fraud for a while with the side project: http://desenmascara.me

My thoughts are that this online fraud has reached a point which can not be overlooked. The last paragraph of the SANS paper on this topic published earlier this year is:

"SafeBrowsing (https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/?hl=en) is a Google technology included by default in the major browsers to protect the users from unsafe sites such as: Malware sites and phishing sites. The ultimate ambitious goal of this research is to have widely-used technologies like the above to flag a new kind of unsafe sites: FAKE websites related with the online counterfeiting. "

Humbly I have tried to have available detections for these kind of counterfeit-related websites into the major browsers such as; Mozilla and Chrome. In Mozilla they do not believe these kind of fake websites are a threat for the users so they will not fix, in Chrome the issue is still open.


Counterfeit-related websites are usually involved with personal information data stolen


The industry response to this online fraud is quite variable, while Facebook does little or nothing at all to disrupt this online fraud

Some brands in FB deal with the endless cat-and-mouse play with the online counterfeiters

the Law enforcement authorities along with 3rd parties coordinated by Europol had tackled down the biggest number of these kind of fake websites until date. So my prediction for 2018:


Counterfeit-related websites will be an additional protection by Safe Browsing (or any other major security technology), and this change will lead the way consumers (and industry) behaves against this online threat.

My view: