Study of security in web browsers
using various operating system
Features for security in web browsers in Mac
Safari Features to Protect Your Privacy
1. Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention
This browser spots where websites and companies obtain user data and
then it blocks that data from carrying over onto other sites by using
machine learning.
In this way any information obtained about us on any site can’t be
spread all over the internet and our data and personal information stay
limited to individual sites.
The tracker also minimizes third parties from accessing any data Apple
collects and we have right to decide how much data Apple can collect
from us when we use its devices and software. We can also request our
personal data from Apple to know how much the company uses or
accesses our data.
2. Privacy Reports in the Smart Search Field
The Smart Search field is the address bar in Safari where we type in or
paste URLs to access websites.
The search field has a major privacy feature, it tells us if someone is
trying to track our data when we are surfing the internet and informs us
if that entity was blocked from getting the information or not.
This information can be found in privacy report. Privacy reports tell us
about active trackers on sites that we are currently browsing as well as
trackers that have been blocked in the past.
3. Private Browsing Windows
Safari also allows you to browse the internet using Private Browsing
windows. Private Browsing windows work as default Safari windows
do, except they hide even more information from websites and data
trackers.
In a Private Browsing window, no search or website information is
saved—any sites you visit or terms you search in these windows won’t
appear in your Safari history. Autofill information isn’t saved, and
webpages can’t be shared or accessed via iCloud or Handoff.
Any data you create while browsing in one private tab won’t affected or
be accessible to other private tabs or windows you keep open. This
means that even if you log into Facebook in one private tab, you’d have
to log in again if you opened Facebook in a second private tab. So, you
deal with even less tracking than Intelligent Tracking Prevention on its
own.
Safari Features for Better Security
In addition to keeping your information private, Safari also keeps you safe
from hackers and malware as you browse the internet.
4. Safari's Password Manager
One of its major security features is its built-in password manager. Like
other password managers, there are some steps to complete before you
start using it fully. But Safari will safely save passwords for you as you
use them on different websites.
Those passwords only auto-fill when you log in with your credentials.
On Mac computers with Touch ID, your fingerprint can protect autofill
for your usernames and passwords. This means not just anyone can log
in to your email, social media, or banking sites.
In your Safari password list, you can see if any passwords have been
compromised or exposed, as long as have the Detect passwords
compromised by known data leaks box checked.
If your passwords have appeared around the web, Safari will show a
yellow triangle icon that has an exclamation point in it to the right of
the password. Seeing this icon usually means you should change that
password, which you can do on your account page for the website.
Safari will then update its password manager to match.
Safari’s password manager can also help you create strong passwords.
Whenever you sign up for a new website, Safari will offer to create and
store a super-strong password that’s near-impossible to guess.
If you’re worried about not being able to make strong passwords on
your own, this is a fantastic option that keeps your internet experiences
safe and secure. And with iCloud, these strong passwords are easy to
pass on to iPhone and iPad. Touch ID and Face ID ensure that only you
can see your passwords.
5. Popup Blocking in Safari
Safari also offers extensive popup blocking, giving you a less annoying
web experience that's also safer. Popup ads can contain all sorts of
seedy links, including those that download malware to your Mac.
While macs aren’t known for getting viruses, Mac-specific malware
definitely exists. We’ve written before about how to tell if your Mac
has a virus, but it's better to make sure you don’t get malware, rather
than having to deal with removing it.
Safari has several settings for popups, including blocking all of them
outright. You can also have Safari let you know when it blocks one, in
case you actually need a popup from a particular site.
Features for security in web browsers in Linux
Firefox for work and high security sites
Use Firefox to access work-related sites, where extra care should be taken to
ensure that data like cookies, sessions, login information, keystrokes, etc,
should most definitely not fall into attackers’ hands. You should NOT use this
browser for accessing any other sites except select few. You should install the
following essential Firefox add-ons:
NoScript
• NoScript prevents active content from loading, except from user
whitelisted domains. It is a great hassle to use with your default
browser (though offers really good security benefits), so we recommend
only enabling it on the browser you use to access work-related sites.
Privacy Badger
• EFF’s Privacy Badger will prevent most external trackers and ad
platforms from being loaded, which will help avoid compromises on
these tracking sites from affecting your browser (trackers and ad sites
are very commonly targeted by attackers, as they allow rapid infection
of thousands of systems worldwide).
HTTPS Everywhere
• This EFF-developed Add-on will ensure that most of your sites are
accessed over a secure connection, even if a link you click is using
http:// (great to avoid a number of attacks, such as SSL-strip).
Certificate Patrol is also a nice-to-have tool that will alert you if the site
you’re accessing has recently changed their TLS certificates — especially if it
wasn’t nearing expiration dates or if it is now using a different certification
authority. It helps alert you if someone is trying to man-in-the-middle your
connection, but generates a lot of benign false-positives.
You should leave Firefox as your default browser for opening links, as
NoScript will prevent most active content from loading or executing.
Chrome/Chromium for everything else
Chromium developers are ahead of Firefox in adding a lot of nice security
features (at least on Linux), such as seccomp sandboxes, kernel user
namespaces, etc, which act as an added layer of isolation between the sites
you visit and the rest of your system.
Chromium is the upstream open-source project, and Chrome is Google’s
proprietary binary build based on it (insert the usual paranoid caution about
not using it for anything you don’t want Google to know about).
It is recommended that you install Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere
extensions in Chrome as well and give it a distinct theme from Firefox to
indicate that this is your “untrusted sites” browser.
Features for security in web browsers in Windows
Website security indicators
Whenever you navigate to a website, Chrome will display a security indicator
to the left of the web address in the Omnibox.
Understanding these indicators can help you stay safe when entering personal
information online.
The non-SSL indicator will appear for most websites, which means
the site is not using a secure connection. This is not important for many
websites, like a news source or weather forecast, but you should avoid
entering sensitive personal information on these pages.
The HTTPS indicator will appear if the site is using a secure
connection. Always check for this icon when entering sensitive
information, like your credit card number or birth date. A secure
connection makes it almost impossible for someone to access your
information.
The insecure HTTPS indicator will appear if Chrome detects a
problem with a site's secure connection. Never enter personal or
sensitive information on an insecure site.
Malware and phishing protection
In order to keep you and your computer protected from harmful websites,
Chrome automatically downloads a list of dangerous and malicious websites
and stores that list on your computer. Whenever you navigate to a website in
Chrome, that page is checked against the list.
If a website is suspected to be a malware or phishing site, Chrome will
display a warning page instead of navigating to the website. If you see this
warning, click Back to safety to return to the last page you visited.
Security for now, and the future
Chrome is the most secure browser in the world. Advanced technology such
as site isolation, sandboxing and predictive phishing protection keep you safe
from security threats.
Avoid dangerous websites
Chrome technology protects you from a range of deceptive and dangerous
sites and downloads that might steal passwords or infect your machine. If we
think something seems suspicious, you’ll see a warning.
Always have the latest security
Chrome automatically updates every six weeks so that you always have the
latest security features and fixes. For important security bugs, we've pushed
out a fix within 24 hours – no effort from you required.
Features for security in web browsers in Android
Enhanced protection
Gives you warnings about potentially risky sites, downloads, and
extensions.
Automatically warns you about password breaches.
Sends additional info to Google about your activity. Learn more about
safe browsing protection.
If Safe Browsing can’t confirm that a download is safe, Chrome warns
you that the file may be dangerous. You have the option to send this file
to Google to be scanned.
Standard protection
Gives you warnings about potentially risky sites, downloads, and
extensions.
You can choose to get warnings about password breaches.
You can choose to improve security on the web for everyone by
sending additional info to Google.
No protection
Safe Browsing is turned off.
Safe Browsing might still be turned on in other Google services, like Gmail.
Password protection
Users are alerted if they are signing up on a website or anywhere else, using a
password that has been exposed to some data breach. This feature is basically
an integration of Google's recently launched Password Checkup tool. The tool
alerts users about hacked passwords. The brand claims users have the option
to control the feature through the Settings under Sync and Google services.
Real time phishing protection
Google does predictive phishing protection for websites that may trigger
phishing. In addition, this feature will now work for all the passwords you
store in Chrome's password manager. Hundreds of millions more users will
now benefit from the new warnings.
The company has claimed that it will provide real-time phishing protections
on desktop, which users can avail by enabling "Make searches and browsing
better" setting in Chrome.
Disable or Encrypt Data Syncing
Bookmarks and browsing history are usually saved on the user's device
computer. If sync is enabled data from the device is going to Google. In order
to not share data with Google, one has to disable syncing.
If a person uses multiple devices and has data sync across all of them, then
instead of disabling the option to sync, the user can encrypt all data with a
passphrase. To use this feature, Chrome will ask the person to create a
passphrase that will be needed on every device that needs to be synced. To
keep this data private, ensure the passphrase chosen is not the same as the one
for the Google account.
Other features as tab freezing, back-forward caching mechanism, restricting
the HTTPS "mixed content" sites to load have been added to ensure no data is
leaked.
Enable "Safe Browsing" and "Do Not Track"
Safe Browsing feature can help in prevent certain malicious or poorly secured
sites from opening in your browser. With the Do Not Track feature, websites
cannot track the amount of time a user spends on any given page. Apart from
that, this feature also stops the website from tracking your behaviour, which
includes the type of information that interests you.
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