Security News
Mozilla has announced that it will introduce a more privacy-focused default Referrer Policy to protect Firefox users' privacy, starting with the web browser's next version. Once updated, the web browser will automatically trim user-sensitive information like path and query string information accessible from the Referrer URL. This URL is sent together with the HTTP Referrer header between websites during subresources requests and navigating between sites by clicking on links.
A newly uncovered cyberattack is taking control of victims' Gmail accounts, by using a customized, malicious Mozilla Firefox browser extension called FriarFox. FriarFox gives cybercriminals various types of access to users' Gmail accounts and Firefox browser data.
The Mozilla Foundation has released its latest version of the Firefox browser, which comes with new privacy protections to squash cross-site cookie tracking, as well as a slew of security vulnerability fixes. "Total Cookie Protection confines cookies to the site where they were created, which prevents tracking companies from using these cookies to track your browsing from site to site," said Tim Huang, Johann Hofmann and Arthur Edelstein with Mozilla on Tuesday.
Mozilla has revised the way the latest build of the Firefox browser handles HTTP cookies to prevent third-parties from using them to track people online, as part of improvements in build 86 of the code. The third-party cookies placed by these scripts can be read on other websites that also load tracking code and are often used to follow people from website to website in order to build interest profiles for behavioral ad targeting.
Dating has been a lot tougher for singles since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing many people onto dating apps to supplement the real thing. Most dating apps require users to enter a significant amount of information for safety purposes, but a new report from Mozilla has found that some of the most popular dating apps take a lot more data from you than you'd expect.
Mozilla has released Firefox 85.0.1 and includes a fix that prevents a Windows 10 NTFS corruption bug from being triggered from the browser. Last month, BleepingComputer reported that a bug in Windows 10 and Windows XP allows non-privileged users to mark an NTFS volume as dirty.
Chrome 89 also supports Web NFC, meaning that web applications can read and write NFC tags. Another new feature is the Web Serial API, which enables direct communication between web applications and devices with serial ports.
Mozilla Firefox is disabling the browser's backspace key to prevent users from accidentally losing data typed into forms. In 2014, Google removed the ability to go back to a previous page by using the backspace key as it could cause the loss of data entered into forms on the current page.
Mozilla has shared info on how to fix a known issue leading to errors on multiple video streaming platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon's Prime Video on the Mac version of Firefox 84. "If you're on a Mac with Apple Silicon and are experiencing errors when trying to watch Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime or another streaming service after installing Firefox 84+, you might need to install Rosetta," Mozilla says in a recently published support document.
Mozilla now offers a VPN service that protects Windows and mobile devices, and soon your Linux and macOS desktops. Jack Wallen shows you how to use the new offering.