Ever considered how you could make your internet browsing session secured with some cool add-ons and tweaks in your browser? This article talks about some must-have security add-ons for Chrome and Firefox that offer good security options for the internet.
Firefox add-ons: Firefox is regarded as one of the most secured browsers. It has got some great security add-ons that can provide good security features while you surf the internet.
TrackMeNot: Popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing keep track of your searches and keeps a search based profile of yours in their database. This security add-on prevents the search engines to do just that. However, instead of hiding your searches, this add-on generates random indistinguishable search queries to cover your original searches, which make it quite impossible for search engines to cumulate the data into any appropriate user profile. In this way, Search engines cannot keep track of your original searches.
NoScript: NoScript is a Firefox extension that lets you run JavaScript, Java and other active content to run only from sites that you trust. It is the best browser protection against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Click-jacking attacks.
FoxFilter: It is considered as the parental control of Firefox, blocking access to adult content on the web. It can block entire websites based on specified keywords. FoxFilter comes with password protection and other security features so that it cannot be easily disabled or uninstall.
Phish Tester: Supported on Firefox 11, this security add-on checks whether the visited website is secured or not by checking it against the list of phishing sites on the PhishTank database.
PhishTank SiteChecker: PhishTank maintains a database of phishing websites through a submission-verification process and tracks the submitted websites for phishing activity. The Firefox add-on brings the community judgment power of PhishTank into the browser. For Firefox versions 3.0 and below.
Redirect Remover: One of the most common threats to your online privacy is that when you visit a website, you may actually be visiting many more. The link that you click may redirect you to an entirely different website. Some users don’t like it and for them the Redirect Remover add-on is here. Redirect Remover guarantees its users that they stay on the website they visited and stops automatic redirection. It also prevents users from unintentional redirects to phishing websites that acquire personal information. It also comes with a predefined whitelist of websites in which redirections are allowed.
Passive Cache: This add-on fetches a cached copy of the page for the input URL from Google along with a listing of other cached copies of the same page from Archive.org Wayback Machine, enabling you to view historical versions of the page without any active connections with the target website.
YesScript: This add-on is NoScript’s antagonist. Most users often prefer simplicity and less user interaction over security. Hence, instead of blocking scripts by default and only allowing them to run from whitelisted sites, this add-on allows scripts to run from all websites unless they are blacklisted.
BlockSite: This add-on blocks specific websites of your choice. Additionally, it also disables all hyperlinks to the blocked site in other websites.
Long URL Please: Many of us use URL shorteners to hide actual links. Sometimes these shortened URLs are often spams. This Firefox add-on will directly reveal the actual URLs behind the shortened URLs by replacing the short URLs with their actual URLs directly within the web page.
Panic Button: Ever found yourself browsing the wrong website at the wrong places? Relax; Panic button instantly hides all your open tabs with only a click of a button. You can restore the same tabs later with another click of the button.
WOT – Safe Surfing: WOT (Web-Of-Trust) shows you trustworthy websites for safe internet browsing. WOT ratings are based on the experience of millions of users worldwide.
Spamavert.com: This add-on uses the Spamavert service and generates a temporary email for those typical websites that tell you to register to their service before you can do something useful.
User Agent Switcher: This add-on lets you change your user agent and surf the web as an iPhone, Search Bot and many more.
Chrome add-ons: Because Chrome is popular as one of the fastest browsers, the above security add-ons for Firefox are also available for Chrome. If you are a chrome user, you would want the respective extensions for Chrome. The TrackMeNot, NotScripts (advanced version of NoScript), FoxFilter, Zscaler Safe Shopping (an advanced PhishTank), Passive Cache, Tactical URL Expander (Long URL for Chrome), Panic Button and WOT extensions for Chrome can be found in their respective URL links.
Additionally, some other extensions are given below.
Redirect Checker: This Chrome extension checks the status of URLs and notifies where the link redirects to.
AdBlock Plus (Beta): This Chrome extension blocks all ads from all websites, even Facebook or YouTube. It is a community-driven open source project that aims for better ad-free internet surfing. Also available for Firefox.
LastPass: A password manager and auto form filler for Chrome. LastPass keeps a list of passwords used in different websites and keeps them safe. You can also help you fill out forms by automatically filling in your basic information. Also available for Firefox.
Chrome has an in-built User Agent Switcher that functions the same way as the respective Firefox add-on. It can be found in the Developer Tools (Ctrl + Shift + I for Windows/Linux or Cmd + Option + I for Mac) under the Settings option (Gear icon) at the bottom. If your desired user agent is not present in the list, select Other and type in the custom user-agent name.
These useful and essential browser add-ons can make your web surfing experience a lot safer. However, these are only our picks and there are certainly more security add-ons providing a wide range of functionality. And the list keeps growing everyday.