HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It encrypts your communications with a number of major websites.
The EFF launched a new version of HTTPS Everywhere, a security tool that offers enhanced protection for Firefox browser users against Firesheep and other exploits of webpage security flaws.
HTTPS secures web browsing by encrypting both requests from your browser to websites and the resulting pages that are displayed. Without HTTPS, your online reading habits and activities are vulnerable to eavesdropping, and your accounts are vulnerable to hijacking.
Unfortunately, while many sites on the web offer some limited support for HTTPS, it is often difficult to use. Websites may default to using the unencrypted, and therefore vulnerable, HTTP protocol or may fill HTTPS pages with insecure HTTP references. EFF's HTTPS Everywhere tool uses carefully crafted rules to switch sites from HTTP to HTTPS.
The Hacker News
This new version of HTTPS Everywhere responds to growing concerns about website vulnerability in the wake of Firesheep, an attack tool that could enable an eavesdropper on a network to take over another user's web accounts – on social networking sites or webmail systems, for example – if the browser's connection to the web application either does not use cryptography or does not use it thoroughly enough.
Firesheep, which was released in October as a demonstration of a vulnerability that computer security experts have known about for years, sparked a flurry of media attention.
The plugin currently works for:
  • Google Search
  • Wikipedia
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • bit.ly
  • GMX
  • WordPress.com blogs
  • The New York Times
  • The Washington Post
  • Paypal
  • EFF
  • Tor
  • Ixquick
  • More ….
How to use HTTPS Everywhere?
  1. Turn on the "Facebook+" rule. You can do that in the Tools->Add Ons->HTTPS Everywhere->Preferences menu. It isn't on by default, because it can cause Facebook Apps to raise errors. We're still waiting for Facebook to fix this, and the chat problem :( .
  2. Install the Adblock Plus Firefox extension too, and use it to block the insecure https:// adds and trackers that Facebook (and other sites) sometimes include.
Download HTTPS Everywhere v0.9 here


Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.