One of the great things about Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser is the ability to customize it any way you want. With the growth of Web-related security issues, the need for protection and privacy is strong. After conversing with users and experts, below is a list of some handy security-related Firefox add-ons.
Firefox and security - some simple add-ons for layered security. (Img: J. Anderson)
The add-ons listed are continuously updated and maintained. Each focuses on security and privacy and takes up little resource usage on Firefox. Users of Firefox 3 will notice no performance drain when using some or all of the scripts.
The first script, one that almost all Firefox users know, is NoScript. NoScript is an add-on that allows only trusted sites to execute JavaScript and Java, as well as other executable content such as Flash and Silverlight. Its goal is to protect the browser from Cross-Site Scripting attacks as well as embedded attacks from sites that have suffered from SQL Injection. The script is easy to navigate and intuitive to control, there is no real learning curve when using it.
NoScript can be downloaded directly from Mozilla by clicking here.
Secondly, we have something that will back-up NoScript when it comes to blocking unknown or untrusted content. Called Flashblock, the script will prevent Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Shockwave, and, of course, Macromedia Flash from loading on a page, leaving the user with a clean placeholder where the content should appear -- offering an option to download and run the object.
If used with NoScript, there is a chance of overlapping coverage, and you may have to temporary allow the domain in NoScript before the content will execute. However, this is a small price to pay for layered coverage.
Flashblock can be downloaded directly from Mozilla by clicking here.
Third in line comes an add-on called Web of Trust (WOT). WOT is a unique add-on with almost one million downloads already amassed. The WOT add-on acts like McAfee’s Site Advisor, with elements from various Web browser additions like AVG’s Safe Search.
Aimed squarely at family surfing, its focus is on the traffic light notification system that will rank sites on three levels, offering protection from several risk types found online, from malicious software to Web sites that have poor customer relations.
Green qualifies as a safe site; Yellow means you will need to use caution, and Red means there is potential for serious risk. Like Site Advisor, you can view the ranking of a page using comments and feedback from other WOT users, and the search engine notification plays on both McAfee and AVG by listing either a Green, Yellow, or Red icon next to the result. WOT currently has ratings for almost twenty million sites, and is expected to grow.
WOT can be downloaded directly from Mozilla by clicking here.
Next we have Adblock Plus, which is something recommended by all Firefox users. The premise of this add-on is simple: some types of ads will track you, while other types will simply annoy you or slow the load times for various Web sites.
Adblock Plus will remove those ads, and allow you to introduce more ads to the list simply by right-clicking and selecting the 'block' option. By default, Adblock comes with a great set of rules that will block almost 80 percent of the intrusive ads found online. There are also additions to Adblock, such as the Element Hiding Helper, that offer more blocking power by removing text-based ads.
(Note: The irony of promoting ad-blocking add-ons on this site is not lost on us. The Tech Herald is ad supported, and by viewing them and clicking on something that snatches your attention, you do support us. However, we will NEVER force you to view ads on our site, and likewise we will NEVER block users who use ad-filtering software.)
Adblock Plus can be downloaded directly from Mozilla by clicking here.
Perspectives arrives as a new effort to curb MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attacks and has been developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science and College of Engineering as the newest addition to the security lineup on Firefox.
Recently covered on The Tech Herald, the add-on just got updated to version 2.1.4. Full details are in the linked article, but you should download this anyway. If you get nothing else off this list, get Perspectives.
Perspectives can be downloaded directly by clicking here.
If you want safety ratings in your Web browser, like WOT, but from a vendor you already know, there is always Finjan's SecureBrowsing, a security extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer that scans and classifies Web addresses to provide you with the safety rating of URLs before you visit them.
This is done in real-time and not with a database. Like Site Advisor, Finjan’s offering will show a green check if the site is clear, a red ‘X’ if the site is harmful, or a yellow '?' if the page is unknown or has not been scan checked.
Finjan SecureBrowsing can be downloaded directly by clicking here.
There are tons of security tools for Firefox; this above list is just a small but useful collection.
Feel free to list some of your favorite security tools via the comments section.
Finally, while not exactly for Firefox (although there are several add-ons that do use it) TOR is another security tool you should use. Get more info on TOR by clicking here.
Update: Below are suggested apps. Thanks for the list Earle!
Dr . Web anti-virus link checker :: This plugin allows you to check any file you are about to download, any page you are about to visit with online version of Dr.Web anti-virus! New menu item "Scan with Dr.Web" will appear on hyperlink context menu.
Interclue :: Ever wanted to know what was behind the link before you clicked? Interclue tells you everything you need to know before you open yet another tab.does NOT work in Yahoo e-mail
Firekeeper :: Detect and block malicious sites. An Intrusion Detection and Prevention System integrated within Firefox. Its main goal is to detect and inform the user about malicious sites that are trying to use some known browsers vulnerabilities to get control over the user's machine or to do some other suspicious action.
Link Evaluator :: A Firefox extension designed to help users evaluate the availability of online resources linked to from a given Web page. When started, it automatically follows all links on the current page, and assesses the responses of each
BLOCK SITE :: BlockSite is an extension, which automatically blocks websites of your choice.Additionally, this extension will disable all hyperlinks to these websites, by just displaying the link text without the clicking functionality.
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