Additional differences become apparent in the web browser plugin development and availability. Some browsers offer thousands of plugins while others only a handful. Plugins can be a very effective way of adding additional protection to the web browser. This article is about the top 5 security plugins for the most popular web browsers. If you know of a plugin that is missing in the list let us (and everyone else) know about it in the comments.

Mozilla Firefox

No Script – The one add-on that many security experts do not want to live without. No Script can block script execution on websites. It does so on all websites by default with the option to enable specific scripts temporarily or permanently. The add-on can prevent script based attacks (most of them are) if used correctly.

Last Pass – The password manager for Firefox. It can generate and remember secure passwords, fill out forms and even auto login the user into websites. The three important security related features are secure password generation, password storing and auto login. Secure passwords have the weakness that they are hard to remember. It is simply easier to remember 123456 than f&z_cU!;re4xZ especially if you consider that unique passwords should be used one every website. With Last Pass users get unlimited secure passwords with the need to only remember the master password. The auto login feature can be very effective against phishing attacks as it won’t work on phishing websites that use a different url than the original.

No Redirect – A versatile add-on that handles several things at once. It will reveal the destination url of short url services and prevent that Internet providers and other companies use DNS hijacks to show their (search pages). This does happen for instance with many major ISPs if the user mistypes a domain extension.

Link Extend and Web of Trust – Link Extend and Web of Trust provide a similar functionality. They provide website ratings to inform the user about potentially dangerous websites. Both display ratings in major search engines but also in a toolbar for the active page.

CS Lite – Cookie permissions on a per-site basis. Allows the user to block or allow cookies permanently or temporarily.

Backup: Febe Firefox Backup. It is always a good idea to create regular backups to be prepared when data gets corrupted or deleted. Febe is a Firefox add-on that can backup all profile data of the web browser including bookmarks, settings, extensions and passwords.

Google Chrome

Last Pass – The Last Pass password manager is also available for the Google Chrome web browser. Extension support is currently only available for dev releases of the Google browser. The functionality on the other hand is similar to that of the Firefox add-on. It is possible to generate passwords, store them and use the auto login feature.

Flash Block – This is the closest to the No Script Firefox add-on. Flash Block will only block Flash content but not other script related objects.

McAfee Site Advisor bookmarklet – There are not many Google Chrome extensions yet. Bookmarklets try to close that gap by allowing all Google Chrome users – and not only those that use a dev version – to make use of additional features. This bookmarklet will display McAfee Site Advisor ratings when executed. Comparable to Wot or Link Extend with the difference that it has to be executed manually.

Adsweep and Adblock+ – Two options to disable most advertisement that is displayed on websites. These add-ons are more about the annoying objects on websites and less about security. They can however be helpful in situations were rogue ads are displayed that spread malware.

Backup: Fav Browser – Fav Browser 2 can backup and restore all settings of Google Chrome 2, 3 or 4.

Internet Explorer

Last Pass – Did we mention that we love Last Pass? The password manager is available as a plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It offers the same functionality on all supported web browsers including password generation and secure storage of passwords.

Web of Trust or Trend Protect – Both display ratings for the active websites and websites that are listed in the major search engines (Google Search, Yahoo Search, MSN). They can be used as an indicator if a site’s potentially dangerous to visit.

IE7 Pro – A great plugin for Internet Explorer (not only 7 but also Internet Explorer 8) that offers ad blocking and many additional features. It comes closes to the No Script Firefox add-on. The ad blocker includes a Flash Blocker. Another interesting module is userscript support which can be also beneficial to security.

Backup: Fav Backup – You can use the tool to backup and restore Internet Explorer profile settings.

Only four for Internet Explorer. Do you know of additional Internet Explorer security add-ons? Let us know in the comments.

Related posts

• Xenocode Web Browser Sandbox (0)
• Web Browser Popularity (51)
• Web Browser Memory Usage Benchmark Gets It All Wrong (15)
• Web Browser Have Impact On Battery Life (1)
• Web Browser Benchmark Comparison (19)

Seven different color coded ratings are used in the browser plugin. Most important ratings are green for a safe website, red for a dangerous website and yellow which indicates undesirable and suspicious contents.

The second indicator becomes only visible on the supported search engine results pages. Every url on these pages, even the advertisements, will be rated by TrendProtect to give the user an indication of the possible dangers on these websites.

The ratings of the service are calculated by taking page and site reputation, phishing scam detection and content categories into account. It is possible to influence some values in the options of the plugin. This includes selecting categories like gambling or adult as undesirable. Another option is the addition of websites to a list of trusted websites.

TrendProtect is available for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 (although it is not mentioned on the page) only at this moment. TrendMicro has plans to port the plugin to the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Related posts

• Web Archive Viewer For Internet Explorer (3)
• Top 5 Security Plugins For Firefox, Chrome And Internet Explorer (17)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer Security Update (3)
• Microsoft February Security Updates (4)
• Internet Explorer HTTP Watch (2)

This security update is being released out of band in conjunction with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035, which describes vulnerabilities in those components and controls that have been developed using vulnerable versions of the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL). As a defense-in-depth measure, this Internet Explorer security update helps mitigate known attack vectors within Internet Explorer for those components and controls that have been developed with vulnerable versions of ATL as described in Microsoft Security Advisory (973882) and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035.

This security update also resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01 and Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, running on supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000; Critical for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows XP; Critical for Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Vista; Moderate for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Server 2003; and Moderate for Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

Windows users should make sure to download the security update as soon as possible. It is available at the usual sources including automatic updates, Windows Update or Microsoft Update.

Related posts

• Real Player Internet Explorer vulnerability (2)
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Comparison Chart (23)
• Microsoft February Security Updates (4)
• Log Into Multiple Accounts At The Same Site With Internet Explorer 8 (9)
• Internet Explorer Vulnerability Fix (5)

WOT, which stands for Web Of Trust, is an add-on for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that increases the Internet security of the web browser. The main purpose of the add-on is to scan and rank all links in popular search engines and other websites to give the user an indication of the dangers of each listed website.

Each link on supported websites will be ranked with a single colored icon which can be expanded into a detailed view when hovering with the mouse over it. Websites are ranked from very poor to excellent in the four categories trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety.

The Internet Explorer add-on will display a popup if the user clicks on a link with a poor rating which works as a second warning. It is then up to the user to ignore the warning and visit the website, skip the website or check some user reviews on the Web of Trust website first.

Web of Trust should not obviously be the only means of Internet Security but it can be helpful especially for inexperienced users who might get into troubles when visiting unsafe websites. The Internet Explorer add-on is actually not exclusive to Internet Explorer as a version for Firefox is also available for download.

Related posts

• Internet Explorer Sessions (0)
• TrendProtect Warns Internet Explorers About Dangerous Websites (3)
• Top 5 Security Plugins For Firefox, Chrome And Internet Explorer (17)
• Take Back Your Privacy By Disabling Auto Suggest In IE8 (3)
• Qpedia Adds Wikipedia Search to Internet Explorer (3)

The security update fixes the following two vulnerabilities: Uninitialized Memory Corruption Vulnerability and CSS Memory Corruption Vulnerability. Since it is a cumulative update it does apply all previous security updates for Internet Explorer on the computer system.

The easiest way to update affected systems is to use Microsoft Update which will download and apply the security updates automatically. The other possibility is to download the patch from Microsoft Download and apply it manually.

Microsoft has released three additional security bulletins:

• Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959239)
• Vulnerability in Microsoft SQL Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution (959420)
• Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Visio Could Allow Remote Code Execution (957634)

Related posts

• Use Multiple Internet Explorer Versions Simultaneously (10)
• Validation removed from Internet Explorer 7 (5)
• Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 (33)
• Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Comparison Chart (23)
• Microsoft Security Patches for June 2009 (12)

If a user accesses the Internet with multiple computers he might want to use the same security zone settings on all of them. The easiest way to do that would be to export the security zones on one computer and export them to all others instead of adding sites to the zones manually on all computers.

Internet Explorer is storing the security zone information in the Windows Registry. To export the settings of the currently logged in user one would have to open the Registry with [Windows R], typing [regedit] and hitting [Enter].

The Registry key is located at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains

A left click on Domains will select that key. The next step would be to open the File Menu and select Export. Enter a name and save the data as a file on the computer.

The newly created file has to be transferred to another computer. A right-click on the file at the new computer will open a context menu. The entry Merge will add the data to the correct Registry key so that the zone information of the first computer will be added to it as well.

Related posts

• Add Buttons to Internet Explorer that launch programs (0)
• Windows Registry Protection (9)
• When Mouse Clicks Go Wrong (4)
• USB Flash Drive Write Protection (12)
• TrendProtect Warns Internet Explorers About Dangerous Websites (3)