Firefox To Block Crypto Mining Malware
There is no doubt that Firefox is among today’s most popular web browser. While it may not be as highly-celebrated as Google’s Chrome, it certainly has a market of its own. Now, it is getting upgraded in order to block crypto mining malware in future releases.
Enhancing Performance
The aforementioned browser is poised to block all crypto mining malware scripts in a goal to pursue a much wider performance-enhancing push. The Mozilla Foundation, which is the not-for-profit company behind the open-source browser, wants to block trackers and other so-called “harmful practices” in all of its upcoming releases.
Interestingly, some of these features are already available on the Firefox Nightly beta version. One of these is none other than the anti-tracking function.
The organization’s goal is to prevent any third-party script from hampering the overall user experience. This is also a statement confirmed and further detailed by Nick Nguyen, the vice president of product.
Basically, the said scripts are embedded within websites. But what most users do not know is that they can commandeer one’s computing power. An epitome according to the organization is the type of script that hijacks a user’s unused computer power in order to mine digital assets.
Battling ‘Deceptive Practices’
Nguyen said that these “deceptive practices” can obtain identifiable user information. What is even worse is that it can degrade the user experience, which is exactly what is happening already today.
“For example, some trackers fingerprint users — a technique that allows them to invisibly identify users by their device properties, and which users are unable to control. Other sites have deployed crypto mining scripts that silently mine cryptocurrencies on the user’s device,” he said. “Practices like these make the web a more hostile place to be. Future versions of Firefox will block these practices by default.”
The Firefox Nightly version is set to be used so as to test the very functionality of each new feature. If it proves to be successful, users can expect to see them enabled by default in the Firefox 63 release.
Mozilla is now among the many browser developers – including Opera and Google – that are trying their best to protect users from malicious miners. Not only does the latter slow down user experience, it can also potentially damage computers.
Google, on the other hand, has already decided to ban all crypto mining apps from its Play Store. As of press time, it remains unknown whether it will officially block scripts embedded within websites.