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Firefox Extension Defends Against Search Hijacking Schemes and Improves Web Security

News release: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), in collaboration with the Tor Project, has launched an official 1.0 version of HTTPS Everywhere, a tool for the Firefox web browser that helps secure web browsing by encrypting connections to more than 1,000 websites. HTTPS Everywhere was first released as a beta test version in June of 2010. Today’s 1.0 version includes support for hundreds of additional websites, using carefully crafted rules to switch from HTTP to HTTPS. HTTPS protects against numerous Internet security and privacy problems, including the search hijacking on U.S. networks that was revealed by an article published today in New Scientist magazine. The article, entitled US internet providers hijacking users’ search queries, documents how a company called Paxfire has been intercepting and altering search traffic on a number of ISPs’ networks. HTTPS can prevent such attacks.”

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