Opera 9.1 beefs up security with real-time fraud protection

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The latest version of the Opera web browser features enhanced fraud protection designed to help safeguard users from the ever-increasing threat of phishing.

Opera 9.1 is equipped with beefed-up security technology from digital certificate expert GeoTrust and phishing data clearing house PhishTank that includes a real-time tool to protect users from such attacks.

It builds on the anti-phishing foundation provided in Opera 8, which helped to determine whether a phishing site was pretending to be a trusted or verified site.

PhishTank, which is operated by OpenDNS and community members, aims to encourage the sharing of phishing-related information to eliminate the risk to users.

The community site's own statistics suggest that last month alone saw more than 9,500 unique phishing attacks.

The browser's creators say the new protection is part of its commitment to ensure users can browse the web securely, against the backdrop of these threats.

"Cyber-criminals are very active during the holiday season as more people venture online to shop or connect with friends and family," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of Opera Software.

"At Opera, we work very hard to protect the users of our products. We commit a lot of resources to ensure that our users are as safe as possible when they are online. Opera's Fraud Protection tool is something we have created with our partners to help users protect themselves."

Security expert Bruce Schneier has welcomed the recent additions to Opera's browser.

"The key to an effective phishing defense is speed and responsiveness," said Schneier, who also serves as chief technology officer at BT Counterpane.

"Opera's fraud protection delivers both by providing the user with real-time anti-phishing detection, augmented with nearly immediate identification of suspected phishing sites."

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