Google recently announced an upgraded version of Safe Browsing to offer real-time, privacy-focused URL protection and prevent users from accessing potentially harmful websites.
“The Standard protection mode for Chrome on desktop and iOS will now check sites against Google’s list of known malicious sites in real-time,” stated Google’s Jonathan Li and Jasika Bawa in a blog post.
This new approach, which replaces the previous method of using a locally-stored list, is expected to increase the detection of phishing attempts by 25%.
Previously, Chrome used a local list of unsafe sites that was updated periodically, but with the updated version, real-time checks against Google’s list will be conducted to prevent users from accessing harmful websites.
Google’s decision to implement these changes was driven by the rapid growth of harmful websites, with many phishing domains becoming inactive within minutes, making them hard to block effectively.
The new architecture involves checking every URL against global and local caches to determine its safety status, ensuring that users are protected when browsing the web.
If a URL is not found in the caches, it undergoes a real-time check using secure hashing techniques to protect user privacy.
A privacy server operated by Fastly acts as a relay between Chrome and the Safe Browsing server, ensuring that users’ IP addresses are not accessed, preserving their browsing activity privacy.
This new system enhances URL protection while maintaining user privacy, making web browsing safer for all users.
