FAQ and Review

Muhindo and Salima understand some of the recommended Firefox Add-ons completely, but they find others a little more difficult to grasp. Fortunately, Assani is able to help explain some of these more complex Add-ons.

Q: Why would I want so many different add-ons to defend myself against malicious websites? If No Script protects me from potentially dangerous scripts, for example, why do I also need McAfee Site Advisor to tell me which websites are actually malicious?

A: It is often a good idea to use more than one tool to address the same general security issue. (Anti-virus programs are an important exception to this rule, since they tend to conflict with one another.) These Firefox add-ons use very different techniques to protect your browser from a variety of threats. NoScript, for example, blocks all scripts from unknown websites, but users tend to 'whitelist' the websites they visit frequently, which allows them to load potentially-malicious scripts. NoScript users also tend to allow unknown sites to load scripts, on a temporary basis, if those scripts are necessary for the page to function properly. Some of these other security-related add-ons, such as McAfee Site Advisor, can help protect you in situations like this.

6.1 Review questions

  1. How do you erase your temporary Internet history, cookies and cache from your browser?
  2. What kinds of attacks can NoScript protect your system from?