Security Settings for Web Browsers 2

Posted by JD 10/21/2010 at 10:07

We just published a new permanent article on Security Settings for Web Browsers that may be interesting to some readers. It lists 23 things you can do to be more secure while surfing the web on the internet.

These are the things that I do. Some will be difficult for people who spend 4+ hrs a day on the internet to use, but not impossible.

The article provides a list of what your should set, not how you should make those settings in your browser. A little internet searching or checking the Help for your browser will let you easily make most of the settings.

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  1. Onsite_Tacoma - yahoo.com 12/31/2010 at 10:16

    Any suggestions for webmail users beyond the browser settings? Is HTML email in webmail clients any safer than than a local mail client? What about reviews of webmail systems? Now that gmail has https as default, isn’t that preferable to systems that don’t?
    I’d also love to see some mention of what toolbars do to your security. I personally don’t use any browser toolbars, but are there security issues if you have them installed even if you never enter anything in their input window?
    Great advice for most users by the way, I just want to see if there are some choices you can make where security is better – if you have the option to make that choice.

  2. JD 12/31/2010 at 11:01

    Webmail – I don’t think much of webmail, but I run email servers. I have a gmail account … don’t use it much due to privacy concerns. I have privacy concerns with everything Google makes. They are an advertising company after all.

    https – Sure that is better than non-SSL webmail. How much would you pay for webmail that wasn’t used for ulterior motives like gmail, hotmail, yahoo-mail … etc?

    Toolbars – any time you allow any extension to run in a browser, you have given up some privacy AND some amount of security. Think very carefully what that is worth to you. Do you want the toolbar owner knowing every single website you visit AND every single link or button that you click? Why? I can’t imagine that a toolbar maker wouldn’t still send all the information they could about your habits back to the mothership. I know that I would.

    BTW, the type-ahead or powersearch features of web browsers also send everything to the search engine by default. You may not want this and may wish to disable it. The same goes for search aggregaters. Not only do you provide all the search engines with data, but the aggregaters also see it without doing any of the tough work that you want.

    Overall security is achieved by allowing the minimum number of things to run on your computer while still getting things done. Any programs, toolbars, extensions or plugins that you allow to run are a risk – a risk to security and/or a risk to privacy. Programs that are proven over time and companies that are proven over time to be worthy of your trust are the best ways to minimize your risks. Tools and companies who you’ve never heard about before need to be looked at with a higher level of scrutiny.

    As a final example – TV ads that are on late night TV promising to make your computer faster … do you really think those people are going to do that for $20? Seriously? I don’t know, but I suspect they will have you download some small program which claims to scan your PC. I bet they’ve never scanned a PC that wasn’t slow or infected. Never. Of course, the cleaning program is $39.99. Grandma gives her credit card information and it is immediately sent to Russia and sold for $2 to everyone that pays. Organized crime is huge all over the world.