For most Internet users, defending against phishing attacks is a top priority. Typically, phishing attacks involve phony emails and fraudulent web sites that try to lure users into disclosing user names, passwords and other personal information, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers.

The damage caused by phishing attacks ranges from loss of access to your web account to identity theft. Once the personal information is obtained, the phishers may use one’s details to steal money, create fake accounts etc.

One popular way to combat phishing attacks is to maintain a list of known phishing sites and to check web sites against the list. This hack highlights 10 anti-phishing Firefox extensions that can be used to mitigate the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack.

PhishTank SiteChecker - SiteChecker blocks phishing web sites based on data from the PhishTack community. When you visit a web site known to PhishTank as a phishing web site, SiteChecker will display a block page instead of the phishing web page. Download PhishTank SiteChecker.

Google Safe Browsing - Google Safe Browsing alerts you if a web page that you visit appears to be asking for your personal or financial information under false pretences (phishing web sites). By combining advanced algorithms with reports about misleading pages from a number of sources, Google Safe Browsing is often able to automatically warn you when you encounter a page that’s trying to trick you into disclosing personal information. Download Google Safe Browsing.

WOT -WOT helps you steer clear of online fraud and phishing web sites, by allowing you to see web sites reputations on your browser. By knowing the reputation of a web site, it becomes easier to avoid accessing phishing web sites. The reputations are taken from testimonies contributed by the WOT community. Download WOT.

Verisign EV Green Bar - This extension adds extended validation certificate support to your browser. When you access a secure web site, the address bar turns green and displays certificate owner and certification authority. This extension is extremely useful to determine whether a web site is phony. Download Verisign EV Green Bar.

iTrustPage - iTrustPage prevents Internet users from filling out untrustworthy web forms. When visiting a web site that has a web form, iTrustPage computes the TrustScore for the form page. When the score is high, iTrustPage deems the web page as trustworthy; otherwise it is untrustworthy. Download iTrustPage.

Finjan SecureBrowsing - Finjan SecureBrowsing checks links in search results and websites and warns you of potentially malicious links. It performs real-time code analysis of the current content on each web page. It detects potentially malicious code and undesirable behavior. Each link is marked as safe (green) or potentially dangerous (red). Download Finjan SecureBrowsing.

FirePhish - FirePhish warns you whenever you surf to a site which is known as a phishing site or has suspicious characteristics. Download FirePhish.

CallingID Link Advisor - CallingID Link Advisor verifies that links you see are safe before you follow them. When the mouse is placed over any link, a risk assessment and the full details of the site owner are displayed, helping you decide whether the site is trustworthy. CallingID Link Advisor also warns you of links to sites that are known as phishing sites. Download CallingID Link Advisor.

SpoofStick - SpoofStick makes it easier to spot a spoofed website by prominently displaying only the most relevant domain information. Download SpoofStick.

TrustBar - TrustBar allows users to assign a favorite name or logo for each web site. This makes it easy to detect fake, cloned sites, from phishing, spoofing, pharming and other attacks. Download TrustBar.