I’d like to see a function where users can enter specific data and have the firewall block that data unless sending it to specified ‘safe sites’.
So for example you can specify your banking password (or part of it) and then tell the firewall that it is only to allow that data through to your banks website …otherwise a popup blocks and and shows a warning.
Info you’d put in this may be things like (or as mentioned above just part of the data - enough to identify the string) … bank account number, passwords, pin numbers, credit card numbers, kids school …anything you’d like to block.
Coming FROM ZoneAlarm … what I’m talking about is the same as ZA’s ‘myVault’.
The protected data needs to be encrypted after it’s been input to keep it safe.
For those of you who say ‘bla bla bla’ to this … I’ve used ZA for years and keep certain info it it’s ‘myVault’ … many times now I have checked activity logs and found entries where passwords, mobile phone numbers, home address etc have been blocked from being sent either to websites or specific ip addresses … and I keep my AV and Spyware protection up to date (set for both ‘live’ and nightly scans).
So it can happen … your data can be sent to locations without you knowing …this to me is a huge concern and should be a part of a firewalls basic function to protect … it’s another layer of security so even if a ‘nasty’ gets past the program control then checking packets for this protected info could stop your info getting out …
Agreed … but there’s lots of things that shouldn’t be relied on … it’s just another ‘nice’ level of security.
But as a parent of a young girl I would like to be able to have my firewall capable of blocking specific data (eg phone #, school name etc …) - even if it only ever stops 1 unencrypted packet then it would be worth the minimal overhead on the system.
Alot of the ‘mainstream’ firewall do have this feature …and of course it can be switched on/off … ZoneAlarm and Nortons to name just two.
It should be relatively simple to add in a defined string to look for - after all the software is already doing that …so a handful of ‘user defined’ strings isn’t going to effect much.
I have had this feature in ZoneAlarm over the past few years …and whilst I keep my antispyware, antivirus etc up to date (and NEVER save passwords) ZoneAlarm has on numerous occassions logged attempts at sending out the info.
I have visited mainstream web pages (MSN was one) and had ZA pop up and ask if I wanted to send my drivers licence to XYZ.com …same with passwords that I reserve only for use on my LAN, my address …and so on.
Again …I feel that any layer of security that can be easily added and has minimal or no effect on performance could not be a bad thing.
This isn’t part of the firewall aspect of those products. It’s part of the “privacy” module, and is based on interaction with the browser to block information, websites, popups, cookies, referrers, BHOs, etc. It implements security that IE is not capable of. Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera provide many if not all of these features - either directly integrated, or available through add-ons.