A little bit of security

This concern starts with Google starting to sync your account with Chrome without giving you much chance to prevent it. So I thought of moving to Firefox. But since the reason is security, why not do a little bit more?

I am planning not to sign in to the browser accounts. So I need to find other ways for the advantages browsers providing; like remembering password, bookmarks, etc. There are a lot of add-ons/extensions for them, and I’ll list the ones I’m using for everybody to have a start point for further investigation, and for myself not to forget them.

Therefore, I will use Firefox from now on, because of the reason I stated above, and it is a better option on performance side.

LastPass

Lately, I was already using LastPass add-on with Chrome, to keep my passwords random, making it harder for social engineers. I will keep using it on Firefox.

This ass-on/extension is available for both Firefox and Chrome. What it does is simple, stores your passwords in what it call a vault, and provides randomly generated passwords if you want. Pretty simple and straight-forward.

Self-Destructing Cookies

I tried to disable cookies from the browser, and in that instant, I was blocked from most of the websites. Most of the major websites doing any account related operations, prevent you to do anything if you disable cookies.

So I noticed, I have no option but to enable them, to comply with the system of the universe. But as many others did, I can apply my rules up to some point. Like deleting my cookies when I’m done with them.

Since deleting cookies from a website, every time I’m finished with them, is a little bit struggle. Luckily, there are add-ons for this also. The one I’m using is Cookie AutoDelete extension for Firefox.

Bookmarks

I wanted to organize my bookmarks just like my passwords, store them in a different place than browser, and contain them with password. However, I could not find any extension to do these things and make them available anywhere with the account.

The extension I found is Private Bookmarks, which does encrypt the bookmarks, making them available only with password. However, it does not provide synchronization between logins, it does this encryption only locally.

I installed Public Fox to prevent adding bookmarks, since I may try to add bookmarks by mistake or somebody else may do it without knowing my precautions.

Searching

OK, I think that Google have good intentions, improving the technology available to everybody. However, some stuff they do intimidates me. Like knowing everything about me and doing some other thing according to this knowledge.

For this reason, I installed Searchonymous, which provides anonymous searches even tough you are signed in to some Google account.

HTTPS

I started to agree with the saying “never too cautious”. HTTPS Everywhere add-on ensures to enable secure version of HTTP, which is HTTPS, for the sites are known to support it. So even if you enter http, it will convert it to https.

Most of the websites does this conversion automatically, but you can never be too cautious.

Add Blocking

Adblock Plus, block advertising on most of the sites like youtube, without blocking everything. It does the blocking a little bit elegantly, so that sites are OK with it. It improves your internet experience.

This is all for now, but will edit to insert new stuff as I start to use them. If you have any comments, advises or relevant ideas, please comment and I can include them here.

Bye till the next time.