Security News
Microsoft Edge and Yandex are "Much more worrisome" compared to Brave, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, according to a paper on browser privacy published this week. Douglas J Leith, a comp sci professor at Trinity College Dublin, investigated the network activity of six browsers - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Brave, Microsoft Edge and Yandex - using a proxy to capture encrypted traffic.
Microsoft Edge and Yandex are "Much more worrisome" compared to Brave, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, according to a paper on browser privacy published this week. Douglas J Leith, a comp sci professor at Trinity College Dublin, investigated the network activity of six browsers - Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Brave, Microsoft Edge and Yandex - using a proxy to capture encrypted traffic.
A powerful new approach to securing web browsers is getting its first real-world application in the Firefox browser. The new approach is now part of a test release of the Firefox browser for the Linux operating system and could be available on Windows and MacOS platforms within a few months.
Santa Clara, Calif-based McAfee has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Baltimore, MD-based Light Point Security. Financial details have not been disclosed, but on completion of the acquisition, the Light Point staff will join McAfee, while the Light Point technology will be integrated into the McAfee Secure Web Gateway.
Google said Monday it has patched a Chrome web browser zero-day bug being actively exploited in the wild. Google said the flaw impacts versions of Chrome released before version 80.0.3987.122.
Security provider McAfee is looking to a new acquisition as a way to better combat browser-based malware. On Tuesday, the company announced its intention to purchase Light Point Security, which makes a browser isolation product.
With the new Chromium version of Microsoft Edge comes new settings that allow you to better control your privacy and security. Microsoft released the new version of Edge on January 15, 2020, for Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 7, so you should already have it by now; if not, browse to Microsoft's website to download the new Microsoft Edge based on Chromium.
The patched version of Mozilla's browser, launched on Tuesday, is Firefox 73 and Firefox ESR 68.5. One of the vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2020-6800, was fixed in a previous release of Firefox 72 and the current Firefox ESR 68.5 update on Tuesday.
UPDATE. Both the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox teams are cracking down on web browser extensions that steal user data and execute remote code, among other bad actions. In this case, Google said that after becoming aware of a widespread pattern of pernicious behavior on the part of a large number of Chrome extensions, it has disabled extensions that contain a monetary component - those that are paid for, offer in-browser transactions and those that offer subscription services.
Google security researchers have published details about the flaws they identified last year in Intelligent Tracking Protection, a privacy scheme developed by Apple's WebKit team for the company's Safari browser. Schuh expressed skepticism that Apple will be able to salvage ITP. "They attempt to mitigate tracking by adding state mechanisms, but adding state often introduces worse privacy/security issues," he wrote.