Improve your online security with the HTTPS Everywhere plugin for Firefox
A few days ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tor Project launched their new HTTPS Everywhere plugin for Firefox. By installing HTTPS Everywhere, your web browser will automatically encrypt connections to websites that have the option thereby enhancing your online privacy and security. Although not all websites allow encryption, many popular sites do including various search engines, email providers, and social networking sites.
According to EFF’s press release:
HTTPS protects against numerous Internet security and privacy problems, including the search hijacking on U.S. networks that was revealed by an article published today in New Scientist magazine. The article, entitled “US internet providers hijacking users’ search queries,” documents how a company called Paxfire has been intercepting and altering search traffic on a number of ISPs’ networks. HTTPS can prevent such attacks.
“HTTPS secures web browsing by encrypting both requests from your browser to websites and the resulting pages that are displayed,” said EFF Senior Staff Technologist Peter Eckersley. “Without HTTPS, your online reading habits and activities are vulnerable to eavesdropping, and your accounts are vulnerable to hijacking. Today’s Paxfire revelations are a grand example of how things can go wrong. EFF created HTTPS Everywhere to make it easier for people to keep their user names, passwords, and browsing histories secure and private. With the revelation that companies like Paxfire are out there, intercepting millions of people’s searches without their permission, this kind of protection is indispensable.”
HTTPS Everywhere 1.0 encrypts connections to Google Image Search, Flickr, Netflix, Apple, and news sites like NPR and the Economist, as well as dozens of banks. HTTPS Everywhere also includes support for Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Wikipedia, the New York Times, and hundreds of other popular websites.
You can download HTTPS Everywhere 1.0 here.
