IE8 stops one billionth malware download
Internet Explorer 8's Smartscreen Filter, used to secure users from dodgy websites, has stopped its one billionth malware download, Microsoft has proudly announced.
As with similar filters found on browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, the first thing that Smartscreen does for IE8 users is check each site visited against a whitelist of known good sites, further assessing any new site in case it is suspicious.
Secondly, and more importantly, if the user chooses to visit a suspicious site, IE8 will still automatically stop files from that site from being downloaded by the unwary. This is the element of blocking referred to in the 'one billion' milestone. The feature first appeared in IE8 when it was released in March 2009
