Secure your Web Browser

The Web browser is used to gain  access to  information and also resources on the World Wide Web. It is a software application used to trace and display the web pages .The main purpose of a web browser is to bring the information resources to the user. The process begins with uniform resource identifier (URI) or uniform resource locator.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• Consider an example of the URL :
• Each URL is divided into different sections as shown below
• http:// -  In short, http means the hypertext transfer protocol and the file is a web page and every time you don’t need to type the http, it is automatically inserted by the browser.
• www –World Wide Web
• infosecawareness – site name
• .in –It is one of the domains name, which is basically a country name.
• Other domain names are .com (commercial organization), .net (network domain) etc.
• (The organization address and location of the organization address are known as the domain name).
• co.in –suffix or global domain name shows the type of organization address and the origin of the country like the suffix co.in indicates a company in India.
• Generally a web browser connects to the web server and retrieves the information.Each web server contains the IP address, and once you are connected to the web server by using http, it reads the hyper text mark-up language (HTML) which is a language used to create document on World Wide Web in which the same document is displayed in the web browser .
• In short, a browser is an application that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. 

Understanding usage of Web Browsers

A Web browser is a software application that runs on the internet and allows viewing the web pages, as well as content, technologies, videos, music, graphics, animations and many more. In other words, a browser is an application that offers a method to look at and interact with the entire information on the World Wide Web.

How to secure your web browser?

• Anti-Phishing
  Shop and do business safely on the Internet. Firefox gets a fresh update of web forgery sites 48 times in a day, so if you try to visit a fraudulent site that’s pretending to be a site you trust (like your bank), a browser message—big as life—will stop you.
• Anti-Malware
  Firefox protects you from viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware delivered over the Web. If you accidentally access an attack site, it will warn you away from the site and tell you why it isn’t safe to use.
• Anti-Virus Software
  Firefox integrates elegantly with your Windows antivirus software. When you download a file, your computer’s antivirus program automatically checks it to protect you against viruses and other malware, which could otherwise attack your computer.
• Instant Web Site ID
  Want to be extra sure about a site’s legitimacy before you make a purchase? Click on a site favicon for an instant identity overview. Another click digs deeper: how many times have you visited? Are your passwords saved? Check up on suspicious sites, avoid Web forgeries and make sure a site is what it claims to be.
• Private Browsing
  Sometimes it’s nice to go undercover, so turn this feature on and protect your browsing history. You can slip in and out of private browsing mode quickly, so it’s easy to go back to what you were doing before as if nothing ever happened. It’s great if you’re doing your online banking on a shared computer or checking email from an Internet café.
• customized Security Settings
  Control the level of scrutiny you’d like Firefox to give a site and enter exceptions—sites that don’t need the third degree. Customize settings for passwords, cookies, loading images and installing add-ons for a fully empowered Web experience.

 

• Enable the option use a suggestion service to help complete searches and URLS typed in the address bar.
• Enable DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance.
• Enable the phishing and malware protection.
• Under minor tweaks enable  the never save passwords.
• Under computer wide SSL settings enable the option use SSL 2.0.
• From the page menu select the create application shortcuts, this is used if you want some websites to be viewed regularly, and you may want to create application shortcuts for the desired websites that can be placed on your desktop, Start menu or quick launch menu so you can choose any one of these options .After creating, if you double-click on the shortcut icon on the desktop or start menu, the websites open in a special window that don’t display tabs, buttons, address bar or menus.
• Many of the browser functions are available instead in the drop-down menu that appears when you click the page logo in the upper-right corner of the window. If you click a link that takes you to a different website, the link opens in a standard Google Chrome window so you won't lose track of your website.