Zscaler Safe Shopping, the browser extension that warns users when they visit a fake store or compromised store, was Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera. It is now available for Internet Explorer 6 to 9 (Windows XP, Vista and 7). This is the first extension we released for Internet Explorer, and hopefully not the last one. You can download it here.
 |
| Zscaler Safe Shopping warning in Internet Explorer |
Fake stores are still prevalent in Google searches for buying software online. If you get redirected to one of the fake store, a banner will be displayed at the top of the page to let you know the the website is not safe. We update the blacklist of fake and compromised stores regularly.
Browser Helper Object
Internet Explorer extensions are called Browser Helper Object (BHO). Unlike all the other major browsers, the add-on infrastructure in Internet Explorer is very incomplete. Internet Explorer does not offer a way to easily install add-ons, to update them, or to configure them. Instead, add-ons are treated as regular Windows program. Zscaler Safe Shopping comes in the form of executable to install and register the BHO. You can disable add-ons from within Internet Explorer, but you have to use the Control Panel to remove them completely from your system.
 |
| Zscaler Safe Shopping installer |
 |
| Zscaler Safe Shopping installed |
The executable required administration rights to register itself as an Internet Explorer add-on by modifying the registry. Although the add-on appears in Internet Explorer right after the installation, a restart of Internet Explorer is required to activate the plugin.
You can download Zscaler Safe Shopping from our website.
I will talk more about developing BHO in later posts.
Leave a reply
