Cyber Security:

Browsers

Web browsers are steadily developing enhanced security and it is a good idea to always use the latest version.

There are several simple things you can do to improve your web browser’s security.

Use a browser such as Brave (https://brave.com/) that is designed to put your security first.

Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. It is a privacy-focused browser, which automatically blocks online advertisements and website trackers in its default settings.

It also provides users the choice to turn on optional ads that pay users for their attention in the form of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) cryptocurrency. Users can then send contributions to websites and content creators, which support BAT in the form of tips along with the ability to keep the cryptocurrency they earned. Brave Software's headquarters are in San Francisco, California. As of August 2022, Brave claims to have more than 57.42 million monthly active users, 19.3 million daily active users and a network of more than 1.6 million content creators.

Use a search engine such as duckduckgo (https://duckduckgo.com) that doesn’t track you.

 

Use a secure VPN or the TOR browser when using public wi-fi.

Cookies are small pieces of data that can be used to track your use of the web and some websites host cookies belonging to organisations you know nothing about – these are called ‘third party cookies’ and they’re no use to you whatsoever.

Use the tools/preferences menu in your browser to prevent the use of third party cookies.

Can you be identified by your web browser?

Once you have checked your settings you can test whether you can be identified by your web browser by visiting the site https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ 

Read the information about this site (and to be on the safe side check out its reputation on the web before you try it!) and then hit the ‘Test Me’ button.

The screenshot below shows the test results for my secure browser:

Detailed Results

The site gives information it gathered about your browser in a report. This report includes examples of several different kinds of metrics:

WEB HEADERS - Whenever you connect to a website (in our case, "https://coveryourtracks.eff.org"), your device sends a request that includes HTTP headers. These headers contain information like your device's timezone, language, privacy settings, and cookies. Web headers are transmitted by your browser with every site visit.

JAVASCRIPT-DERIVED CHARACTERISTICS - Some details about your browser can be discovered by using JavaScript code. This includes fonts, certain details about your hardware configuration, and your canvas fingerprint.

Each result by itself doesn’t give much information away. But, in combination all this information creates a digital fingerprint that might identify you wherever you browsed, even if you were pretending to be someone else and had blocked cookies.

For most people, that doesn’t matter, but, for example, a 'whistleblower' or 'journalist reporting news' concerning sensitive issues should be aware of how hard it is to keep yourself hidden and safe.