How-to Extend Google Chrome Security – extensions that allow for safe and hassle-free websurfing

Google Chrome is touted as being the fastest internet browser. Google also points to Chrome having less security flaws than competitor Internet Explorer. The use of extensions for Chrome has allowed Google and trusted third parties to improve the strength of security while streamlining the process.  There are a number of different classes of extensions that help with this.

Ad blockers

Depending of the particular extension, these programs can block banner and Adsense-type ads from appearing on your side (even in applications such as Facebook, Gmail and Yahoo mail), prevent additional “pop-up” windows, and/or disable ads in streaming videos (e.g. Youtube). Some popular examples are Facebook Ads Hider, Adblock, Webmail Adblocker, and AdThwart. There have been some reports though, of ad-blockers being overly aggressive and blocking what could be considered legitimate content. Needless to say, blocking all ads deprives many websites with legitimate content of needed revenue for web hosting costs and the like.

Web History Functions

If you don’t surf in Incognito Mode with Chrome, then you can rack up some web history that can hold sensitive information. Aside from manually cleaning your history manually, a simple extension such as Click&Clean (see picture of preferences page above) can make it easy to surf without a trace. Using a password manager like LastPass not only helps keep track of ever-mounting login information, but also fills in the info if Chrome is not automatically entering it when you visit the applicable sites. It is also useful to retrieve login info if you were depending on Chrome to save passwords, but accidentally had the “clear saved passwords” box ticked when you last deleted your browsing history. Bug me not is useful for sites that require you to provide personal info to access content. When entering in passwords, credit card numbers, or other secret information, the Unencrypted Password Warning extension reminds those unfamiliar with the https notation if their data will be unencrypted and vulnerable to interception.

Other Security Methods

Installing the Web of Trust (WOT) extension in Chrome allows you to review the rating a site has in terms of trustworthiness (e.g. scams), vendor reliability (i.e. for businesses), privacy (e.g. adware and spyware), and child safety (e.g. level of adult-themed content). These rating are based on the collective input of millions of WOT members. WOT has a fairly strict security and privacy policy, so I would not be to worried about the authorization required at install to track some of your web history. With the major search engines, a rating given by a coloured circle (the WOT icon) is given next to every search result. Green is good, orange is questionable, and red is bad (see image below). SiteAdvisor is a similar extension, but without the rating system.

Final Thoughts

Like any program, extensions themselves can have vulnerabilities, or ever be outright malicious. Never install an extension you are not sure of. To avoid vulnerabilities in your extensions and plug-ins (e.g. Flash, Quicktime) and keep them up to date, programs like Secbrowsing -plugin version checker is good to have as it periodically checks all of these other programs and makes sure that they are up to date with no reported vulnerabilities.

What are your experiences with these extensions? Are they useful or do they cause problems? Give us your opinion in the comments section below. Have safe, fast, and happy browsing!