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Anti-Virus Companies Race to Beat Hackers

The time when anti-virus and firewall tools were able to stop all online attacks are over, and the recent super-sophisticated attack on the online payment service PayPal proves just that. Companies that offer online security services must supply new solutions for new threats. The attack exploited a cross-site scripting flaw, allowing unknown fraudsters to inject a phony warning message and malicious phishing Web site link into a page served by a PayPal secure server.

Anti-virus companies, such as McAfee and Symantec, are worried. The attack has shown that their services provide no solution for such threats, and that things have to change. McAfee launched a beta program for Falcon, a new "total protection" suite that targets malicious web sites and promised web protection. Symantec announced a new product called "Norton Confidential."

The new software by Symantec can spot fraud sites, online banking Trojans, and keyloggers. Norton Confidential would not have spotted the PayPal phishing fraud, but it would have alerted customers when they landed on the actual phishing site that solicited their login information. Online security software providers are in a constant race to beat hackers. Even if you`re running the latest of anti-virus applications, you should keep an eye open and think twice before handing out information.