Mozilla Firefox has a great reputation among web surfers; a lot of its success stems from the fact that it is one of the most secure web browsers on the market. The problem with this reputation is that people feel invincible when they use Firefox; they don’t take the time to adjust the browser’s security settings. Just like any other browser, you need to manually check and enable security settings; this helps guarantee system security.Follow these tips to lock down and protect your browser:
Use A Master Password
If you don’t enable a master password, everyone who uses your computer can get access to your saved passwords; it’s as simple as looking in your Options menu. Firefox’s default settings allow users to look at every single password you have ever saved in the search engine.
Fortunately, Firefox allows you to enable a master password; this protects your password list. When this option is enabled, users must enter a password to get access to all of your other passwords; this feature prevents casual snoopers from viewing all of your website passwords.
Use A Good Password For Synchronizing
Firefox has the ability to sync all of your bookmarks, data and passwords to browsers on different devices. When Firefox does this, it encrypts all of your data; you need to enter a password to get access to your data on a different device.
Syncing is a secure process, but only if you use a strong password. Make sure your password uses some numbers, symbols or special characters. If someone can crack your password, they can sync your profile to another computer; when they do that, they have access to your browser data and passwords.
Enable Security Options
Firefox comes with basic security and privacy features enabled, but it’s important to check your browser once in a while to make sure they haven’t been deactivated. Open your Firefox Menu; navigate to the Options window. Once there, you can select the Security tab; make sure that the top three boxes are checked.
Install Security Add-Ons
Installing a few free security add-ons can help keep your system secure. NoScript gives you control over what sites execute Java, Flash and Silverlight commands; these commands are often used in malware and virus programs. If you can stop them from executing, your computer stays protected.
Adblock Plus is an add-on that stops popups, banners and advertisements from being shown; this reduces clutter, and it keeps you protected when you’re surfing the net. Adblock Plus will block some instances of adware, phishing attacks and malware.
Update Your Browser
Hackers exploit outdated browsers; if you don’t update your browser regularly, you leave the door wide open for troublemakers. Older versions of Firefox have many vulnerabilities that were never patched. Fortunately, it only takes a minute or two to update your browser.
A little bit of preparation goes a long way when it comes to Firefox security. The browser is very secure, but you can take a couple of simple steps to make it almost impenetrable. When you enable a master password, a strong sync password and add-ons, Firefox becomes virtually impossible to crack.