PayPal suggests you don’t use Safari
According to PayPal, if you want to be safe from phishing attacks on the Internet, then avoid using Apple’s Safari browser.
The warning comes from PayPal’s chief information security officer, Michael Barrett, who said:
Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers … Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera … I’d love to say that Safari was a safer browser, but at this point it isn’t.
The reason PayPal is not happy with Safari is due to two key anti-phishing features the browser does not currently have. The first of these is a lack of phishing filter, so users of the browser have no chance of being warned if something suspicious is happening. Second, there is no support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates.
EV performs a more thorough validation of SSL security–the little padlock that appears when viewing a secure connection. If EV is being used, then Internet Explorer 7 turns the address bar green. This feature is also coming to FireFox and Opera very soon.
Until Apple introduces these features in Safari, PayPal will not add the browser to its recommended list and continue to suggest alternatives.
Read more at InfoWorld.
Matthew’s Opinion
With security such a high priority for the Internet, you’d think Apple would ensure it was supporting the latest certificate authentication techniques. Currently, it seems that is not the case, and news like this is not going to aid user uptake of Safari as an alternative to IE and Firefox.
On the flip side, you have to ask the question, do the missing features really matter? If you are talking from a competitive standpoint, then they do as you need to offer at least the same features as your rivals to compete. From a security standpoint, PayPal believes it falls short, but Safari does support SSL version 2 and 3 and Transport Layer Security and therefore arguably is secure as a browser.
Ultimately, the choice is the users, and regardless of what browser you use, your machine should also be running a solid security package, offering a range of protection.
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