No matter what you do your computer will eventually get infected with something. Even the most vigilant users get infected every now and then. A huge doorway through which these bugs can access your computer is your internet browser. If you can lock down this application then you will greatly reduce the chances of your PC catching a nasty cold. With only a few plugins installed, a major catastrophe could be prevented for both you and your PC.
To start, do not use Internet Explorer. It is the by and far the most used internet browser to date and will be the primary target for any hacker. Firefox has only recently attained 17 percent market share, while Internet Explorer is bobbing around 63 percent. This is why I strongly recommend Mozilla Firefox or Opera; because hackers target the systems and programs that the majority of people use. Firefox gained popularity primarily due to the fact that it was the first well known web browser to introduce a tabbed browsing interface that allows you to have multiple web pages open in one window. It is also open-source, meaning everybody has access to the source code. The source code is the inner workings of the program. If you have the source code you could possibly create a spin off of the program and sell it as your own. This is why companies keep the source code for their programs highly guarded, especially for commercial products. Luckily for us there is a booming open source community in which Firefox has risen to stardom.
Once installed Firefox has an enormous range of addons and plugins you can install. To see all of them go to firefox.com and click on the addons tab. From here you can install dictionaries for Firefox's spell check, themes to customize the look and feel of your browser, plugins such as Shockwave and Flash player and addons that will do anything from convey local weather information to display the latest NBA scores. You can install as many addons as you like, but be aware that the more you install the longer Firefox will take to load.
There are a few addons that I consider necessary for basic browsing security, it is no surprise they are among the top addons downloaded for Firefox. Adblock Plus will block banners from websites. All you have to do is right click the banner and click “Adblock” and it will disappear.
NoScript is the single most important extension to install. Youtube and some other sites do not create the bannered advertisements on their sites. They allow space for the banners but the banners that are displayed in that space are redirected to different web page. With NoScript you can see which websites are loading content into the site your visiting and and choose which sites are allowed to run scripts. For instance when at Youtube you have two websites running script- youtube.com and doubleclick.net (Scripts from the home site are usually safe and sometimes required for the site to function and display properly). What you can do is allow the Youtube scripts, enabling the main site to function correctly, but block doubleclick.net to disable any of the advertisements, banners, popups (scripts) from that site. This prevents them from displaying on the homepage (Youtube. You will have to do this once for every new site you visit, after that it's saved. Luckily you can permanently block sites like doubleclick.net from ever loading onto the sites you view as well. Another good site to block is googlesyndication.com. This is the source of all the “relevant” Google advertisements.
How convenient would it be to see if a web page has been flagged as dangerous before you visit it? Thats what SiteAdvisor does. Ever since the addon was bought out by McAfee you have to venture outside Firefox's website to install it, but a simple Google search will lead you straight to it. SiteAdvisor acts as a test dummy visiting various sites and reporting their findings back to you. It will then display a safety rating in your Google search results based on its findings. Before you click on a link you can see its safety rating and if it hosts infectious downloads or contains links to other misguided sites, before you ever eve load it's web page.
With these three extensions installed with Firefox, you have just taken a major step in locking down the number one gateway through which malware infects your PC. It is always the best choice to put security measures in place before these bugs have any opportunity to infect your computer. I cannot stress enough that you must make sure you keep your internet browser and it's addons up to date to ensure they contain the latest security patches. As of writing Firefox is in version 2.0.0.11. With a open Beta available for download. More information can be found at Firefox.com
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