Firefox 83 Offers Users HTTPS-Only Mode

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HTTPS has long been a must-have for websites of all types and sizes. Since Chrome began marking HTTP sites as insecure, HTTPS adoption has skyrocketed. Today, Google’s encrypted traffic has surpassed 90%. While that’s an impressive figure, beyond Google, in the wilderness of the internet, there are still plenty of unsecured sites and outdated links that put users’ sensitive data at risk.

For cyber-attackers, unsecured websites remain the easiest prey. Using man-in-the-middle attacks, they can intercept and steal personal information from unsuspecting users. With the HTTP protocol, all data transferred between the browser and the server is stored in plain text, visible to everyone. In an environment where people must share their names and payment details to make purchases or use services, there is no room for such a critical vulnerability.

Leading browsers and security companies are constantly working to encrypt the entire Internet. It all started when Google decided to offer a small SEO boost to encourage the transition to HTTPS. And since all websites are obsessed with SEO, the incentive worked like a charm.

But Google was just warming up. A full shutdown of HTTP mobile app development service sites soon followed, with Chrome and then Firefox starting to issue security warnings on unencrypted sites. Speaking of Firefox, the popular browser announced a new HTTPS-only mode in its latest update, which improves user privacy and security.

What is HTTPS-Only mode?
In short, HTTPS-only mode is a new security feature included in the Firefox 83 release that allows users to only connect to websites over the secure HTTPS protocol (when possible). Here's an excerpt from the official
release notes




“By enabling HTTPS-Only Mode, you can browse the web as you normally would, confident that Firefox will put web connections in a secure state whenever possible and keep you secure by default.”

If you're a Firefox user, you can now use HTTPS connections when they're available, and get a warning if a site doesn't have an SSL certificate. This is great news when millions of sites haven't yet switched to HTTPS. By enabling "HTTPS only" mode, you further reduce the risk of information leaks.

Even if you intentionally try to connect to an unsecured HTTP site, Firefox will override this and use HTTPS if it is available on the site. If it can’t connect over HTTPS, it will warn you instead. So how do you enable HTTPS-only mode? Follow the steps below and you’ll be up and running in no time.