These simple steps can greatly improve your online security.

If you use a Linux desktop but never use a web browser, you are one in a million. The web browser is one of the most common tools used by most people, and they rely on it far more than native apps for work, entertainment, news, social networking, and money management. Therefore, we need to know how to use web browsers safely. Criminals and the web sites they set up have long sought to steal private information. Because of the amount of sensitive information we send and receive through web browsers, security is even more important.

What does it take for the user? In this article, I’ll offer some basic tips for keeping your important data from being stolen. Although I’m using the Firefox web browser for the demo, most of these tips work with any web browser.

Choose the right browser

While my advice is universal, it’s important to choose the right web browser. The frequency with which a web browser is updated is an important indicator of its security. Web browsers are constantly exposing new problems, so the newer the web browser, the more problems it fixes and the more secure it is. Among major web browsers, the 2017 release rankings are as follows:

  1. Chrome released eight updates (Chromium followed with numerous security patches throughout the year).
  2. Firefox released seven updates.
  3. Edge has released two updates.
  4. Safari released an update (Apple also releases 5 or 6 security patches a year).

Web browsers are constantly updated, and users need to upgrade to the latest version, otherwise it’s meaningless. While most popular Linux distributions automatically update their Web browsers to the latest version, there are some Linux distributions that don’t automatically update their web browsers, so it’s best to manually keep your browser up to date. This means that the standard software library for your Linux distribution probably does not contain the latest version of your web browser, in which case you can always download and install it from the latest version download page provided by the web browser developer.

If you’re a more adventurous person, you can also try a beta or daily build version of your web browser, but those versions come with the possibility that they won’t work well. On an Ubuntu-based distribution, you can use the Daily build of Firefox by adding the required repository by executing the following command:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppaCopy the code

Update apt and install the Daily build Firefox with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefoxCopy the code

The most important thing is never to make your web browser version obsolete and always use the latest version of your web browser. That’s it. If you don’t keep up with updates, you’ll end up with a browser that exposes all sorts of issues.

Use the Privacy window

What happens when you update your Web browser to the latest version? The answer is to use a privacy window, if you really care about security. Privacy window won’t save your data: Passwords? A cookie? The cache? History? Nothing will be saved. So a significant disadvantage of the privacy window is that you have to re-enter your password every time you visit a common site or service. Of course, if you think web browser security is important, never save any passwords.

Speaking of which, I think everyone needs to make their passwords stronger. In fact, everyone should use a strong password and store it through a manager. And my choice is a href = “http://upm.sourceforge.net/” > general Password Manager (Universal Password Manager).

Protect your password

Some people might think it’s too much work to re-enter your password every time. In Firefox, if you want to protect your Password without typing it too often, there’s a built-in tool called Master Password that lets you do that. Once you use the tool, you need to enter the correct master password before you can use any other passwords saved in the browser. You can do this by following these steps:

  1. Open Firefox.
  2. Click the menu button.
  3. Click “Preferences”.
  4. On the preferences page, click “Privacy & Security”.
  5. Select the “Use master password” option on the page (Figure 1).
  6. Once confirmed, enter the new master password (Figure 2).
  7. Restart Firefox.


Figure 1: Master password Settings on the Firefox Preferences page.


Figure 2: Setting the master password in Firefox.


Know the extensions and plug-ins you use

Most web browsers have a lot of privacy extensions, and you can choose different ones based on your needs. For my part, I chose these extensions:

  • Firefox Multi-Account Containers – Allows some sites to be configured to open in the container TAB.
  • Facebook Container – Always open Facebook in the Container TAB (this extension requires Firefox Multi-Account Containers).
  • Avast Online Security – Identifies and blocks known phishing sites and displays the site’s Security rating (supported by the Avast community of over 400 million users).
  • Mining Blocker – Blocks all Mining tools that use the CPU.
  • PassFF– Through integrationpass(a UNIX password manager) to store passwords securely.
  • Privacy Badger – Automatically intercepts web site tracking.
  • UBlock Origin – Intercepts known website tracking.

In addition, the following browsers have many security extensions:

  • Firefox
  • Chrome, Chromium, Vivaldi
  • Opera

But not every web browser provides users with extensions or plug-ins. Midoria, for example, has only a few built-in plug-ins that can be turned on or off (Figure 3), and third-party plug-ins for these lightweight browsers are fairly lacking.


Figure 3: Midori browser plug-in window.


virtualization

You can also run a web browser on a virtual machine if you are worried about data being stolen from local storage. Just install software such as VirtualBox and install Linux, and you can run any browser in your virtual machine. Combined with the above suggestions, the basic security can be guaranteed.

The truth of the matter

In fact, you can never be 100% secure if your machine is connected to the Internet. Of course, as long as you use a web browser correctly, you’ll be more secure and your data won’t be easily stolen. One benefit of Linux is that the chance of malware being installed is much lower than other operating systems. Also, remember to use the latest version of your web browser, keep your operating system up to date, and use caution on all web sites.

You can also learn more about this through the “Introduction to Linux” open course offered by the Linux Foundation and edX.

via: https://www.linux.com/learn/intro-to-linux/2018/11/5-easy-tips-linux-web-browser-security

By Jack Wallen (lujun9972

This article is originally compiled by LCTT and released in Linux China