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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
Today I want to review browsers and application safety. On the heels of Woody’s post about the Microsoft Store offering it’s wise to add a healthy do
[See the full post at: Patch Lady – 31 days of Paranoia – Day 13]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
Opera and Vivaldi have been discussed on AskWoody for quite some time. Opera is in no way new – I remember using it a dozen plus years ago, and until they changed to the Chromium basis, was my default browser. Vivaldi is a more recent offering from the original makers of Opera.
Vivaldi has recently released their v.2 version upgrade.
Vivaldi 2.0 – Your browser matters
Today’s update includes Sync, Resizable Tab Tiling, Floating Web Panels and over 1,500 improvements since the first version of Vivaldi. Take control of your most important application – the browser – with the most powerful version of Vivaldi yet.
By Jon von Tetzchner | September 26, 2018
Read the changelog here
A review on Techrepublic.com:
Version 2.0 brings Vivaldi web browser inline with the competition
The latest release Vivaldi 2.0 offers a few must-have features for modern browsers.
By Jack Wallen | October 11, 2018
With the latest release of the Vivaldi browser, the competition might want to think twice about shrugging off the “little browser that could,” because it’s now become the “little browser that can.”
From a long-term Firefox user, and previous to that, Firebird and Phoenix, I haven’t (knowingly) encountered issues with browser security. This is probably due to the fact that I actually prefer to audit/ check each new version of Firefox by doing research and using the about:config interface, as there are always new additions that need tending to.
More info here: Firefox Security Tweaks
Then there is sandboxing the browser, I use firejail and sandboxie for different Operating Systems. Sandboxing isolates your browser and mitigates vulnerabilities from reaching the OS within it’s restricted zone and is an extra layer of defence with minimal resources.
In conjuction with Firefox browser security tweaks, there are plenty of choices of privacy and security extensions against:
trackers, javascript, adblockers, fingerprinting, etc..
Such as: ublock origin, uMatrix, noscript, https everywhere, privacy badger, Disconnect etc..
My advice is to do some research and take your pick. There are some who swear that one is better than the other, it’s your preference and what suits you best!
Of course there are the basics:
1. Keep your OS, AV, Email client, Browser and Extensions up-to-date.
2. Keep your Passwords safe and don’t disclose to anyone.
3. Use HTTPS opposed to HTTP where possible.
4. Be wary of phishing emails and the likes.
5. Don’t download anything from an untrusted source (even if it claims to be the best ever)
On a side note: Using google as a search engine for me, is a big no, no! I much prefer DuckDuckGo which honors privacy for searches, YMMV 🙂
Tracking techniques are complex, subtle, and constantly evolving, different systems and people have different results. Some 3rd party extensions within chrome, firefox and derivatives, ignore/ circumvent the DNT regardless of setting so you can use their extension.
VPN’s also ignore DNT in so that they can monitor your activity whilst protecting your real IP address. (Big brother)
IMHO, It’s certainly not useless, some do, some don’t adhere to the policy request.
Dear Susan – I strongly recommend the superb article https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/04/how-to-keep-your-isps-nose-out-of-your-browser-history-with-encrypted-dns/
It instructs how to set up our devices so that all outgoing DNS queries are protected against MITM attcks AND encrypted so that our ISPs cannot easily track where we go.
I’ve been running Simple DNSCrypt (which configures dnscrypt-proxy) on my PC since April with no issues. And our home FIOS gateway-router is set to send all DNS lookups exclusively to cloudflare’s new 1.1.1.1 service, which does not keep logs AND is very fast.
Thanks.
PS – when will we get your patch good and bad list for this month?
Susan Bradley wrote: “New” as in not still mainstream after all these years. Chrome and Firefox still get the headlines.
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