New Security Add-Ons for Firefox (Part 2)

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CreditCardNanny
Though websites implement SSL/HTTPS encryption, it doesn’t necessarily mean their forms and your data are secure. For example, they could be sending the information you input into forms via clear-text emails to the site administrators still a common practice among many small businesses. The CreditCardNanny add-on tries to detect and notify you of this type of security issue.

Once installed, you can test the extension by visiting the dummy credit card form that uses a form emailer script. CraditCardNanny

DNSSEC Validator
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) were developed to help secure the Domain Name System (DNS). Though DNSSEC is still in the early stages of adoption, you can get prepared by installing this DNSSEC Validator.

This DNSSEC Validator add-on will automatically query DNS records for domains and compare them to the IP addresses Firefox used to download the page. If the records contain valid DNSSEC signatures, you’re protected by DNSSEC; otherwise you might be a victim of DNS spoofng. The results are displayed as a green, orange or red key right in the address bar.

GPO for Firefox
If you administer a domain network with a Windows Server and Active Directory, you’re probably familiar with how Group Policy Objects (GPOs) can help you centralize the management of settings and preferences of Internet Explorer, among other applications and system components.

This add-on lets you use GPOs for Firefox. They provide an administrative template to build the GPOs in Active Directory. The add-on is installable onto clients to read the settings and write the preferences to Firefox.

These GPOs defne general, proxy, security and advanced settings. They can help prevent users from updating Firefox, modifying add-ons and much more.

Privacy Locker
There are plenty of add-ons that offer shortcuts to deleting history, cookies and cache fles. Privacy Locker, however, takes a different approach. It doesn’t delete anything, but lets you lock down your Bookmarks, Tools and History menus. It even blocks the keyboard shortcuts to these menus and prevents access to the about:confg page. Your browser settings, saved passwords, history and bookmarks would all be protected by a password. This is a great way to protect your privacy when others use your PC.

Lockfox
This provides a new kind of anti-phishing protection for Firefox users. Lockfox tracks the passwords you use for each website and alerts you if you try to use the same password twice. If you use unique passwords like you should, this would help you detect fake or duplicate sites that are trying to phish for your login credentials or credit card info.

Xpnd.it! short URL expander
One of my biggest pet peeves on the Internet these days is shortened URLs. You can’t tell where the link is pointing, it’s just gibberish. However, install this add-on and you’ll be able to hover over links from over 180 services to see the long URL and other basic information about the site. It’s not a huge security concern, but seeing the longer URL can help you identify the site you’re about to visit.