Browser Defender™ Help
- What is Browser Defender?
- How do I use Browser Defender?
- Browser Defender toolbar
- Browser Defender website
What is Browser Defender?
Browser Defender is a utility which provides you with safety ratings for websites on the Internet to help you make better informed choices when you browse the Internet and to help protect your computer's privacy.
A simple green, red or yellow rating lets you know immediately if (in ThreatExpert's opinion), a website is safe to visit, harmful or needs to be visited with caution. If the website is not amongst our millions of crawled domains, then a grey rating will be shown.
ThreatExpert, a market leader in security analysis, has already done the homework for you by crawling websites and assessing them for possible threats including viruses, spyware, adware, exploits, spam and other unwanted software.
How do I use Browser Defender?
There are two ways to take advantage of Browser Defender's protection:
Browser Defender toolbar
The new Browser Defender toolbar utilizes PC Tools' Search Defender engine to provide safer browsing on the internet.
When you run Browser Defender for the first time, you will be presented with the following screen:
Enable Search Defender- Turns on the Search Defender functionality
Set PC Tools Search Defender as my default search provider- Enables the Search Defender engine in the browser's search box. It also enables the URL bar keyword searching.
Browser Defender appears as follows in your browser window:
Using Browser Defender
Search using Search Defender
Once you install Browser Defender, the Search Defender engine is configured to appear as one of the search providers in the search toolbar in your browser.
You can use this search engine to search keywords as you would use any other search engine.
Understanding the Safety Ratings
The Browser Defender Status Indicator: lets you know the threat level of the website you are visiting. This will change to green, orange or red depending on the threat level of the website.
When the "Check web pages against forgeries heuristically" option is enabled, the anti-phishing engine will look for a range of characteristics that denote phishing sites. The more characteristics it finds, the higher the rating will be for that site.
After assessing, one of these status messages appears at the top of the page:
Browser Defender Options
Set Search Defender as your home page: With Search Defender as your home page you can feel secure knowing you are protected from the moment you start your search.
Smart Update: this setting applies to the smart update function which provides access to the latest features and upgrades to Browser Defender.
- Do not check for updates
- Notify me about available updates
- Automatically download and install updates
Enable Keyword Search: Selecting this will enable search with Search Defender.
Set Search Defender as the active search bar: Enabling this will set Search Defender as the active search toolbar.
Display Search Defender search box: Enabling this will display the search box.
Search for mistyped hosts with Search Defender: Searches for mistakes in typing URLs and points you in the right direction.
Check websites against forgeries heuristically: With the proliferation of online banking and fraudulent sites trying to get your banking details, enabling this option will allow Browser Defender to detect and warn you whenever you are inadvertently directed to one of these phishing sites.
Browser Defender website
Simply go to the Browser Defender website, http://www.browserdefender.com/ and enter the site you would like Brower Defender to assess. All tested websites will be returned with a full analysis report. We are continually expanding our database of websites analyzed, but if your requested website is not amongst our millions of crawled domains, then a grey rating will be shown.
What are the site ratings?
The ratings displayed are those calculated at the time of the last evaluation cycle. Sites are regularly re-evaluated. A feedback form is also provided for your input if you believe a site is incorrectly rated.
The ratings are:
Green: This rating indicates that the tests we performed have led us to form an opinion that this is a safe site to visit which poses no threats either in terms of file downloads, links to unsafe sites or annoyances.
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Yellow: A yellow rating indicates that, in our opinion, this site should be visited with caution. This may be because, in our opinion:
At least 50% of the links from the site have a red and/or yellow rating;
The site has one or more browser exploits;
The site has one or more potentially malicious downloads;
The site belongs to a list of independently known bad sites
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Red: A red rating indicates that, in our opinion, this is an unsafe site. This may be because, in our opinion:
The site has one or more potentially malicious downloads;
The site belongs to an independent list of known bad sites; and/or
What do you take into consideration when determining site ratings?
We take the following factors into consideration when we analyze and form an opinion on a website:
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File downloads : Both direct file downloads, as well as links to file downloads in other domains;
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Online affiliations : Links to other domains;
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Annoyances : Software which ThreatExpert believes are unwanted, such as pop-ups, spam, exploits, cookies;
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Characteristics of malware found (if any): Any malware which ThreatExpert believes compromises the integrity/security of your system; and
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Categories: Evaluating keywords on a website to determine whether the content falls under a certain category.
ThreatExpert forms its opinion on the overall rating of a site through a cumulative rating determined after examining all these factors independently, and in relation to each other.
