Browsers

Mozilla this week resurrected its Test Pilot preview program, offering Firefox users a free VPN-like service to encrypt browser-to-site-and-back transmissions over public networks.

“The Firefox Private Network is an extension which provides a secure, encrypted path to the web to protect your connection and your personal information anywhere and everywhere you use your Firefox browser,” wrote Marissa Wood, vice president of product, in a post to the Mozilla blog.

The free service is available immediately, but only to U.S.-based users running the desktop version of Firefox. A Firefox account – typically used for syncing copies of the browser on multiple devices – and an accompanying add-on are required.

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Google and Mozilla have decided to eliminate visual signals in their Chrome and Firefox desktop browsers of special digital certificates meant to assure users that they landed at a legitimate site, not a malicious copycat.

The certificates, dubbed “Extended Validation” (EV) certificates, were a subset of the usual certificates used to encrypt browser-to-server-and-back communications. Unlike run-of-the-mill certificates, EVs can be issued only by a select group of certificate authorities (CAs); to acquire one, a company must go through a complicated process that validates its legal identity as the site owner. They’re also more expensive.

The idea behind EVs was to give web users confidence that they were at their intended destination, that the site computerworld.com, for instance, was owned by its legal proprietor, IDG, and not a fishy – and phishy – URL run by It’s Crooks All the Way Down LLC and chockablock with malware. Browsers quickly took to the concept, rewarding EV-secured sites with in-your-face visual cues, notably the verified legal identity in front of the domain in the address bar. The identity was often shaded in green as an additional tip-off. (Chrome dismissed the green in September 2018 as of Chrome 69.)

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Mozilla plans bake its Lockwise password manager into Firefox 70, the upgrade now set to launch Oct. 22.

At the same time, the browser will also be more tightly integrated with Firefox Monitor, which will provide warnings to users when their saved passwords have been revealed by a data hack.

According to Firefox bug reports and project documentation, Lockwise will automatically record username-and-password pairs, generate complex passwords on demand, identify victimized accounts and instruct users to change any passwords that have leaked.

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Google this week asked for help in identifying suspicious websites, offering users of its Chrome browser an add-on that lets them rat out URLs.

The Suspicious Site Reporter, which can be added to desktop Chrome, places a new flag-style icon on the top bar of the browser. “By clicking the icon, you’re now able to report unsafe sites to Safe Browsing for further evaluation,” Emily Schechter, a Chrome product manager, wrote in a Tuesday post to a company blog.

Safe Browsing is the name of the technology used by Google’s search engine, Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Android to steer users away from sites that host malicious or deceptive content. On the back end, Google uses robots to scan the web and build a list of websites that host malware, harmful downloads or deceptive ads and pages. Software developers can then plug into an API to integrate this list into their own applications, something rival browser makers have done for years.

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