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Paypal have responded on the widespread rumors that PayPal would be banning certain browsers, including Apple’s Safari.

In a quote from the Wall Street Journal, PayPal Corporate Communications spokesman Michael Oldenburg commented:

“PayPal is developing features to block customers from logging into PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems. An example of such a browser/OS combination might be, for example, Internet Explorer 4 running on Windows 98. In doing so, we better protect our customers from viewing a phishing site through their browser. We have absolutely no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from our website.”

With those strong words it looks like Safari will be safe from any ban.

Thanks to SidinKeyWest for sending this in.

[via 9to5mac]

Word has it that PayPal is seriously considering locking out older browsers in an attempt to curb phishing attacks. Paypal commented that a large number of people are still using Internet Explorer 3 and 4. These versions were released in 1996 and 1997… It’s hard to imagine many people are still using those dinosaurs, but what the heck do I know!?

A paper released during the RSA security conference in San Fran earlier this month noted:

“In our view, letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seatbelts…”

With all this news of banning older browsers because of their lack of anti-phishing filters, Apple’s Safari could very well be next on the hit list. Not only is Safari missing anti-phishing filters, but it also does not support Extended Validation SSL Certificates issued to sites that have been tagged as legitimate.

You can bet your butt on it that Apple has their team working just that little bit extra on Safari over the past month or so to get things up to snuff. I’d be surprised if we do not see a major Safari update within the next month or two.

[via Macworld]

Apple has been very good to people recently. For instance, offering firmware upgrades to the Airport Extreme Base Station that now give it the ability to use Time Machine with an AirPort Disk attached to it - something many people said would never happen as “greedy” Apple would want people to buy their Time Capsule hardware.

So, what have people turned to in order to get outraged with Apple? Well, it’s Apple pushing Safari onto poor, innocent Windows users.

When I ran Apple’s update application on my wife’s Windows PC, it came up with the option to install Safari. It wasn’t forced on me - just suggested. I know my wife would still be using Internet Explorer if I hadn’t downloaded Firefox for her years ago. So, assuming that there are many Windows users like my wife, who wouldn’t even consider looking elsewhere for an alternative to Internet Explorer, I think it’s totally fair for Apple to suggest one.

The people they are offering Safari to are already Apple software users (iTunes/QuickTime) and with the iPhone using Safari too, one could argue that the more people who are given the opportunity to use Safari, the better.

So, how do you feel on the matter? Why not leave a comment on the Mactropolis Forums and let the community know.

Yesterday, PayPal issued a warning of sorts in a MacWorld interview. According to Michael Barrett (PayPal’s chief security officer), Safari does not make PayPal’s list of recommended browsers because it is missing 2 important anti-phishing security features.

Barrett noted:

‘Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers… Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera.’

Points taken Mr. Barrett. However, on other sites around the web I’m hearing different. Lets take this snippet from Jeremiah Lee’s blog:

‘Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, said, “Safari has got nothing in terms of security support, only SSL (Secure Sockets Layer encryption), that’s it.” Indeed, Safari lacks anti-phishing blacklisting and support for extended validation (EV) certificates. Unfortunately for Mr Barrett, SSL is the only method mentioned for securing online transactions. Blacklists and EV certificates provide information to the visitor that the site is more likely to be what it claims. They don’t actually make the browser connection to the web server any more secure.’

Jermiah then goes on to say:

‘Phishing sites impersonate real sites in order to trick visitors into giving legitimate information. Attackers can then use this information to defraud the visitor. Phishing attacks are attacks on visitors, not technology. The solutions aren’t likely technical.’

I think I can sum this whole argument up by simply saying… It’s time for all of us to take responsibility for our actions on the net. It’s true, unfortunately there are a lot of criminals out there ‘phishing’ for your paypal/bank logins out there… Gleaning private login info and stealing hoards of $$$ from the innocent. That’s awful and it sucks… But if we can step-up our own accountability and responsibility on this issue… There will be fewer victims and we’ll all be in a better place.

A new version of Safari is reported to be coming in the next firmware update for iPhone. As well all know the desktop version is in beta at the moment…

Some of the new features reported to be included sound quite interesting. It should render non-standard fonts much better, giving it better scaling and rendering action. Sounds good to me, I only hope this doesn’t slow processing / rendering down at all. 60% of the time I want a fast load all the time. Ok that doesn’t make sense and was a terrible Anchorman reference… But I think you know what I mean.

The new version may also translate HTML boxes in real time. This could prove very interesting to developers. It would allow them to give users the ability to scale, rotate and move elements on a page. Cool, but we’ll see where this one goes.

It in all likelyhood will be an HTML 5 capable browser. So, more multimedia elements and controllers will be available to embed on a page.

The exciting part of the new safari may be in a database browser tool. It will have support for the SQL storage API. With this you could theoretically store web page applications right on your iPhone.

We’ll see how many of these features translate over to a new Safari built for iPhone. Should be coming down the pipe shortly!

What is your take on Safari for the iPhone? Love the experience? Or are there some areas you think it could be better? Obviously it is leaps and bounds ahead of the browsing experience on other hand held devices… I simply hope Apple keeps pushing forward to stay well out in front.

[via iPhoneFreak]