Veterans of antispyware specialist PestPatrol have developed a new tool that throws up roadblocks for so-called drive-by installs of malicious code onto vulnerable PCs.

By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: April 28, 2006, 4:07 PM PDT

The tool, called SocketShield, monitors Internet traffic as it enters a PC and takes action based on a blacklist of known bad Web sites and vulnerability signatures, Roger Thompson, chief technology officer at Exploit Prevention Labs, said in an interview Friday. "Before you can open a poisoned page and get infected, we can stop it," he said...

SocketShield is aimed at shielding Windows users against what's known as drive-by installs, the surreptitious installation of malicious software as people surf the Web...

A trial, or beta, version of SocketShield for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 is available at no cost. Exploit Prevention Labs plans to launch a first official version of the tool in early June. That version will cost $29.95 per year...