By Nikhil Vohra
Maintaining digital security is a multifaceted and complex process, but it’s also essential in the times in which we live. One particularly important place to be vigilant about security is in your browser. This is especially true if you plan to communicate your credit card number, address, or other sensitive information to a trusted website. Failing to establish a secure connection could leave your data vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves, and other malicious actors. To verify whether your browser has established a secure connection, you can navigate to the address bar and make sure that the web address begins with “https://” (as opposed to the insecure “http://”). In addition, most modern browsers provide a padlock icon next to the address bar for those who can see it when a secure connection has been established. Mozilla Firefox has taken HTTPS security one step further with HTTPS-Only Mode. This feature ensures that all sites you visit establish a secure connection to your browser, and when that isn’t possible, the browser issues a warning and an option to continue with an insecure connection. The feature allows you to browse without worrying about the padlock icon in the corner of the window, as secure connections become the default. To read more about the feature, visit Mozilla’s HTTPS-Only Mode support page. You can download Firefox from Mozilla’s main website.
