Here’s another reason to abandon Internet Explorer and make Firefox your default web browser. Firefox’s recent partnering with “Have I Been Pwned” should wake up breached companies and consumers a well.
The “browser” wars continue…. Firefox is having a good run right now, having just released its much speedier and better-looking Quantum browser. It’s now working on a new feature that security conscious web surfers are sure to like: It will warn you if you’re visiting a site that has suffered a data breach. Firefox is working on the feature in collaboration with “Have I Been Pwned,” the popular site that can check your email and tell you if your credentials have been stolen by hackers.
Troy Hunt, the security expert behind Have I Been Pwned, confirmed the news stating “yes, we’re doing some awesome things with Mozilla”
The add-on is fairly basic, for now. If you visit a site on Have I Been Pwned’s naughty list, it will alert you with a flag stating, “You visited hacked site ashleymadison.com.” It won’t stop you from entering, but it does give users an idea that, at some point or another, the site’s security procedures were less than optimal.
Firefox is looking at which sites have been breached and discussing other ways of using the data in the future. Mozilla has a broad reach and getting this info via Firefox is a great way to get more exposure around data breaches.
Hacked sites, on the other hand, might not be too thrilled about a feature that will shame them about their previous lack of security. However, properly implemented, this could provide a very useful service to consumers, letting them know that they might need to change their password and not recycle the potentially breached one. So far – beta users have responded enthusiastically.
