As concern grows over the inability to detect non-authentic websites, a small Australian software company
claims to have the answer consumers and business users have been looking for to protect against the insecurities of the Internet.

The product, called TrustDefender, claims to provide a guaranteed way to stay safe when making transactions, conducting business and connecting to home or office servers when on the Internet. TrustDefender is software that will analyse all outgoing Internet transmissions on a users' computer. By using its GAP Protection (Guaranteed Authentication Program), TrustDefender is able to guarantee the authenticity of Web Servers. In case of uncertainty, TrustDefender will automatically connect to the free TrustedSurfing Internet Database to perform sophisticated checks and provide meaningful information.

Alex Horst, chief software architect, said that what is missing today is the integration of the home user into the complete security chain: "Despite the fact that the banks secure their end of the security chain, consumers are left vulnerable with an inability to guarantee or verify the ecommerce site they are connected to is the correct site -- until it is too late.
Even if they are on a secure site, consumers are still missing the security link between the home user and the ecommerce site. This leaves them vulnerable to threats from malware or online based attacks such as cross site scripting (XSS)," he said.

"Banks or ecommerce sites employing TrustDefender can define policies on how the home computer must look when carrying out an ecommerce transaction -- it must have up-to-date anti-virus software, a working firewall, etc -- otherwise logging onto the online bank will not proceed."