Although every antivirus can control and prevent the reception of viruses via the internet, many people are affected by spyware and phishing attempts. This occurs not because the antivirus is poor or does not do the checks well but because it is the user himself who, deceived by fake ads, forces navigation on these virus sites and, manually, downloads software or allows the authorization of malicious code .
The best paid antivirus have or should have browser protection while free antivirus does not have this component.
In one case or another, if there is anti-phishing protection, it cannot work well if it is not integrated in the browser itself.
Since there are innumerable types of wandering threats on the web, it is recommended to implement an effective security system not only to counter them but precisely to ensure safe browsing in all browsers installed on the computer
As seen in the past, there are some programs to navigate only in safe sites, warning the user if it happens to be in one of these dangerous sites or in web pages on which viruses have been detected.
Regarding this topic, I recommend reading:
- How to strengthen your browser against viruses, malware and privacy intrusions
- Remove browser plugins to browse the web safer
1) The most famous application to protect the browser from viruses is Web Of Trust which exists as an extension for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome.
WOT is a plugin that enables a graphical display of a site's reputation from a security point of view.
This reputation derives not only from the analysis of the Web of Trust system but also from the opinion of users.
By means of a traffic light signal, Wot indicates on the browser a green, yellow or red symbol for each site in which you browse and also on the search results.
This does not prevent you from entering a site full of malware and therefore indicated with the red dot, but simply makes the user aware of it.
2) Better yet is to install Windows Defender Extension for Chrome, developed by Microsoft, which protects against dangerous sites by blocking them.
The goal of this program is more ambitious because it wants to protect the computer from websites that have security vulnerabilities and that can transfer malicious code to the PC represented by javascript, by fake registration forms, by phishing attempts (fake pages created to steal data and passwords), from downloading hidden files and so on.
3) In Windows 10 you can activate Windows Defender Application Guard, an armored and protected browser with which you can easily visit even the most dangerous website in the world without risking anything.
4) BitDefender TrafficLight (Semaphore) does a check of the sites before they load.
In this way any harmful parts are blocked immediately not only of sites made especially for distributing viruses but also of those hacked and compromised sites.
It is therefore an all-round browser protection that uses the BitDefender antivirus online service to intercept malware and viruses on the internet.
You can choose to download and install Trafficlight as a program or as an extension of the browser in use .
If you install it as a program, it protects all programs for surfing the internet: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome and others.
It also provides an antivirus filter and the control of the links shared on social netwrok like Facebook and Twitter .
When you install Trafficlight, you are asked to enable scanning also for SSL connections, i.e. the secure ones typical of when you go to a banking site in https.
Not out of mistrust but I think it is not necessary to protect https with external tools.
After installation, opening any browser, you will notice a tab at the top that can be pulled down with the mouse.
From that tab it is verified that the site is secure and some options can be activated or deactivated.
When you go to search for something on Google or Bing, green, yellow or red symbols appear on the results page depending on how the web page is judged from a security point of view.
Scanning of search results can be disabled in the options.
Among the various protections there is also the AdFilter which prevents invasive advertisements from opening popups or making deceptive banners appear.
The anti-phishing filter prevents you from browsing a site created only to steal passwords or login data.
The 4 protection filters: Antimalware, antiphishing, adfilter and search result analyzer can be deactivated at any time or only the necessary ones can be kept.
Clicking on the Off button turns off the protection and safe navigation of Trafficlight.
Whenever an infected item, a malware, a virus, or a phishing attempt is found on the requested web page, a window appears with options, so you can continue visiting that site or close it immediately.
The nice thing and the most important feature of Trafficlight, which differentiates it from other similar programs such as WOT, is the fact that, if you still decide to continue on the site reported as malicious, the application removes dangerous content in order to make it harmless that web page .
I think this is the right type of tool for those who don't trust themselves in recognizing dangerous sites and want to be more relaxed.
