{"id":1121,"date":"2016-09-23T11:25:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2023-12-15T00:33:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T05:33:17","slug":"browser-security-the-problem-with-add-ons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/?p=1121","title":{"rendered":"Browser Security: The Problem with Add-ons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether on our computers, tablets, or phones, most of us have plugins and extensions that make our web browsers more useful. From video player plugins like Adobe Flash, to ad-blocking extensions and tools that help you spell check and edit as you type, there are countless ways to tailor your browser.<\/p>\n<p>When working with financial and student-related data, these tools can present additional security challenges as well. Add-ons can create points of entry to viruses and malware, potentially exposing sensitive information when we use web-based applications for our work (including Google Apps for Education and AARC).<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to stay safe.<\/p>\n<p><b>Only install necessary add-ons<\/b><br \/>\nIf a plugin or extension does not serve a business or academic purpose, it should not be used during your work at Simmons.<br \/>\nTo disable or remove add-ons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Chrome:<\/b> Type &#8220;about:plugins&#8221; or \u201cabout:extensions\u201d into the address bar<\/li>\n<li><b>Firefox:<\/b> Go to Tools &gt; Add-ons in the menu<\/li>\n<li><b>Safari:<\/b> Go to Preferences in the menu, and look for plug-ins under the Security tab and other add-ons under the Extensions tab<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Take advantage of built-in security options<\/b><br \/>\nMost browsers can block\u2014or warn you of\u2014insecure plugins and extensions. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/chrome\/answer\/142064?hl=en\">enable \u201cclick-to-play\u201d support<\/a> in Chrome. This stops plugins from running automatically and gives you the choice of when to run them and on which websites.<\/p>\n<p><b>Keep your browser and add-ons updated<\/b><br \/>\nInstalling updates increases the likelihood that you have the most up-to-date security features available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether on our computers, tablets, or phones, most of us have plugins and extensions that make our web browsers more useful. From video player plugins like Adobe Flash, to ad-blocking extensions and tools that help you spell check and edit as you type, there are countless ways to tailor your browser. When working with financial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[341,348],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technews","tag-341","tag-348"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technews.simmons.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}