Test Your Browser’s Security 2022

Test Your Browser’s Security 2022.

As your personal gateway to the Internet, your web browser is your first line of defense against malicious websites. If your internet browser is not secure, viruses and spyware can infect your computer and damage important data.

And while a good antivirus does help, it’s always better to prevent malware from infiltrating in the first place than to try to repair the damage. But what exactly can you do about it? Is there a way to check the browser for vulnerabilities?

Let’s try to answer these questions.

Does Browser Security Even Matter?

At first glance, the idea of protecting the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser sounds strange. After all, we all have antivirus software on our computers, so what’s the point of worrying about the browser as well?

However, an antivirus can only go so far. These programs specialize in removing malware and viruses but can do little against dynamic online threats. Problems such as phishing or malicious scripts on a web page are handled by the browser.

Such threats usually come from malicious add-ons or ActiveX plug-ins, although the move to HTML5 and SSL has greatly reduced the prevalence of these security issues. Nowadays, you mostly run into problems granting permissions to the wrong web pages or using an outdated browser with weak security features.

Best Sites to Test Your Browser’s Security

The fastest and easiest way to test your browser for vulnerabilities is to use a dedicated browser security test. These web applications test your internet browser’s ability to deal with online threats and give the go-ahead if everything is found to be up to the task.

Qualys Browser

Probably the most popular browser security test is the Qualys BrowserCheck tool. Qualys is a well-known information security company and their browser testing tool is a great way to check your browser’s security profile.

There are two versions of the tool: a plug-in that needs to be installed in the browser, and a Javascript version that can run on its own. The plug-in provides a more complete overview of your browser’s security features, so it’s recommended to use it, especially for Chrome and Firefox.

Users of Opera, Safari, or Microsoft Internet Explorer may find it a little tricky to get the plugin working and will have better luck with the Javascript test. However, this is enough to identify obvious security problems.

CoverYourTracks – formerly Panopticlick

Browser security is about more than just fighting viruses. A secure browser also protects the user from attacks on their privacy. It prevents malicious websites from tracking your online activities by masking your IP address from hackers.

(EFF) The Electronic Frontier Foundation tool focuses on this aspect of security. The security test, formerly called Panopticlick, has been renamed to CoverYourTracks to better reflect its purpose.

Basically, it checks your browser to analyze how easy it is to track your usage pattern by a tracking company. Browser fingerprinting is a major issue these days and you can check how vulnerable your browser is to such tracking attempts.

How is My SSL

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) has become an important component of internet security these days. It encrypts the communication between the server and your browser, preventing MITM (Man-in-The-Middle) attacks.

Like any other standard, SSL is updated periodically. While every browser supports SSL by default, yours may not support the latest version. Without SSL, your communications can be tracked or intercepted, which is especially dangerous when performing financial transactions.

This is where this test comes in handy. You can simply visit this website to check if your browser supports SSL. The report shows your SSL version, as well as browser compatibility with advanced TLS features.

paused tests

If you’ve been using browser security tests for a long time, you may be familiar with other popular tests that we didn’t mention in our guide. Browser benchmarks such as PCFlank, BrowserScope and ScanIT were once well known. These scanning tools were free and provided a complete set of tests to check the security of the browser.

Unfortunately, these tests are either discontinued or disabled. Some of these tests still claim to work, but since we couldn’t find any working links, they can safely be considered dead.

Should You Test Your Browser’s Security Policy?

For most leading browsers, updating them is enough to fix most security issues. Browser security is usually compromised due to outdated systems and malicious plugins.

A misconfigured firewall or infected RSS feeds can sometimes also open up your computer to attacks. That is why it is so necessary to check the browser for vulnerabilities.

These test results can reveal any security issues with your internet browser, allowing you to fix them before they cause real problems. And since these tests are completely free, there’s no reason not to try them.