Security News > 2020 > November > Mozilla Boosts Security in Firefox With HTTPS-Only Mode
"In light of the very high availability of HTTPS, we believe that it is time to let our users choose to always use HTTPS. That's why we have created HTTPS-Only Mode, which ensures that Firefox doesn't make any insecure connections without your permission," Mozilla says.
Once HTTPS-Only Mode has been enabled, Firefox will attempt to always establish a fully secure connection to the visited website, and even if the user clicks on an HTTP link or manually enters it, the browser will still use HTTPS instead. The new feature can be enabled from the "Preferences" menu, in the "Privacy & Security" section.
"Once HTTPS-Only Mode is turned on, you can browse the web as you always do, with confidence that Firefox will upgrade web connections to be secure whenever possible, and keep you safe by default," Mozilla notes.
When encountering a website that doesn't include support for HTTPS, Firefox will deliver an error message, providing the user with the option to connect using HTTP. For websites that do support HTTPS but serve resources such as images or videos over insecure connections, some pages might malfunction, and users will be provided with the option to temporarily disable HTTPS-Only Mode for that site.
Mozilla expects for HTTP connections to be deprecated once HTTPS is more widely supported and even required for all websites.