TippingPoint Casts Out Open-Source Phishing Tool

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3Com's TippingPoint security division released an open-source anti-phishing technology to other security software developers on Oct. 9, citing industry collaboration as a key to reducing the continued threat of fraudulent Web sites.

Known as Monkeyspaw, the software code is used specifically to validate the legitimacy of individual sites and to report potentially fraudulent sites back to researchers for further investigation. Austin, Texas-based TippingPoint said the technology was primarily designed to work in combination with anti-phishing systems built into other open-source tools, such as the Mozilla Firefox browser.

On a basic level, Monkeyspaw is used to help determine the ownership of a Web server, as well as collect a server's configuration information and the location of the sites it supports. When the program detects a fraudulent site, the Web server and its URLs are reported via the CastleCops online crime organization to roughly 50 different international groups, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who maintain black lists of suspicious sites.

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