Firefox turns 8 and gets a key security boost - mendelfroule

Between Android and Firefox, this has been a big week for milestones in the world of free and open source software.

Low, on Monday, we had Android's fifth natal day–accompanied by news that Google's Linux-based mobile operating platform earned a market share of 75 percent of smartphone shipments for the third base quarter.

And so, on Friday, information technology was Firefox's eighth natal day.

'Openness and interoperability'

"Eight years past today, Mozilla launched the first variation of Firefox," wrote Johnathan Nightingale, V.P. of Firefox Technology, in a blog post earlier today.

"Nowadays, on Firefox's 8th birthday, we're proud to say that our delegac hasn't changed, but the Web has," Nightingale added. "These years, hundreds of millions of the great unwashe trust Firefox with their online lives. We still put citizenry first and, with the subscribe of our Firefox fans, we drive the Web towards openness and interoperability."

Meanwhile, even Eastern Samoa Mozilla's popular Network web browser approached this latest milestone, developers last week announced a new security boost for Firefox.

'Maintaining the user's security'

"We have added to Firefox a list of hosts that want HSTS implemented by nonpayment," wrote Mozilla blogger David Keeler in a new post on the cast's Security Blog.

HSTS, operating room HTTP Demanding Carry Security, is a mechanism by which a server can require that the browser use a secure connection to communicate with it, thereby enhancing users' privacy and security.

"When a user connects to one of these hosts first, the browser will know that it must use a strong connection.," Keeler explained. "If a network assailant prevents secure connections to the server, the web browser will not attempt to plug in finished an insecure protocol, frankincense maintaining the user's protection."

Straight off in Firefox 17

The "preload list" misused for this feature has been seeded with entries from a corresponding list for Google's Chrome browser, Keeler noted.

The new have is now lendable in the current beta version of Firefox 17, indeed information technology's available for anyone to check out.