Malicious websites are becoming less obvious. The other day we were searching for a particular brand, ran the usual Google search and found a store selling the product. The store looked well-designed, product in stock and was on-sale. But the sale price was just a little too good to be true. This was a fraudulent store trying to sell illegal fake items or simply a store designed to extract money from people thinking they were buying a branded item.

How do you avoid landing on one of these websites? If they are listed on Google, you'd think they are legitimate. They aren't, but they haven't been reported as fake - yet - so it's too easy to get caught out.

The solution is a browser extension such as Emsisoft Browser Security for Firefox. This sits in your menu bar and checks a website against a list of bad websites by URL and IP address. If someone has reported the site as suspicious it will be flagged up. You can also use the extension to flag up potential websites as suspicious to warn other users.

The extension will also protect you against phishing emails and websites by stopping you from making a purchase from an illegitimate website or online store.

Emsisoft point out that your personal data is secure with this browser extension. No data is sent to the Emsisoft servers.