Welcome to "Basic Browser Security Settings." After watching this video, you will be able to: Identify and access basic browser security settings, manage proxy server settings, and manage cookie and cache settings. The method for accessing security settings in each web browser is slightly different, but most of them offer similar kinds of settings to enforce security and privacy. For example, in the Google Chrome web browser, to access these settings you select the Customize and control Google Chrome button, (that’s the vertical three dots in the top right corner), and select Settings. Then you select Privacy and security from the left navigation menu, and from here you can configure several settings, including clearing browsing data, configuring cookies and site data, configuring safe browsing options and managing certificates, and site permissions. You can also navigate directly to this settings page by browsing to chrome://settings/privacy in the address bar. And in Microsoft’s Edge web browser, you can access security and privacy settings by selecting the Settings and more button (that’s the horizontal three dots in the top right corner), and select Settings. Then, for most security settings you select Privacy, search, and services from the left navigation menu. Here you can configure several security settings, including tracking prevention, clearing browser data, privacy settings, managing certificates, blocking unwanted apps, secure browsing options, and services settings. You can also navigate directly to this settings page by browsing to edge://settings/privacy in the address bar. In the left navigation menu, there is also a cookies and site permissions option. Here you can manage and delete cookies and site data, as well as view and configure all your site permissions. You can also navigate directly to this settings page by browsing to edge://settings/content in the address bar. Other security settings you need to consider are the proxy server settings. A proxy server acts as a go-between when you browse the web, so that to the websites you are browsing, the site visitor appears to be the proxy server, rather than your computer. There are several advantages to using a proxy server. Firstly, it can help protect your privacy when browsing the Internet or bypass certain content restrictions. It can also help organizations and educational establishments to maintain web security, web monitoring, and content filtering when their employees are browsing the Internet. This helps organizations control what web content is being accessed, when it is being accessed, and by whom, typically to comply with organizational security policies. Using a proxy server can also help reduce an organization’s bandwidth usage and improve the speed of web requests. Proxy servers essentially work by modifying the IP address information in a web request to web servers, to make the request appear to be coming from the proxy server rather than from the original requesting client computer on the proxy server’s network. So, the proxy server makes the request on the client computer’s behalf. The response from the web server is sent back to the proxy server, and the proxy server then forwards the information on to the original requesting client computer. While retrieving the information on behalf of the requesting client PC, the proxy server will typically change the source IP address data and may also perform other tasks such as encrypting data and blocking access to certain categories of web content. To configure proxy server settings in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and the Opera browser, you use the proxy settings defined by the operating system. For example, in Google Chrome and the Opera browser, you open Settings, then in the left navigation menu, expand Advanced, and select System. From here you can select Open your computer’s proxy settings. Similarly, in Microsoft Edge, you open Settings, then in the left navigation menu, select System and performance. And again, you select Open your computer’s proxy settings. In all cases, in Windows 10, this action opens the Proxy settings page. From here you can either configure auto-detect proxy settings, or you can manually specify the proxy server address and port to use. Some other web browsers allow you to configure proxy settings that differ from those defined and controlled by the operating system. For example, in Mozilla Firefox web browser, you open Settings, then scroll down to Network Settings and select Settings, From here, you can either choose to use the operating system settings (which is the default), or you can choose auto-detect, or manually configured proxy server settings. Other devices such as tablets and mobile phones, also allow you to configure proxy settings. For example, on an iOS device such as an Apple iPhone or iPad, you open Settings, then navigate to WiFi and select the name of your wireless network, then scroll down to the HTTP Proxy section and select Configure Proxy. And just like for other web browsers, you can choose between Off, Manual, and Automatic for your proxy server settings. Cookies are small pieces of text-based data that contain information about your computer when browsing a website. This information can be used to save session information for when a user revisits a website and to provide a more customized and targeted experience for the user. A classic example of a session-based cookie would be one that retains data about items in an online shopping basket when you are purchasing goods on a website. While most cookies can be useful, you should also be aware of the risks they bring, such as invading your privacy by tracking your browsing activities and targeting you with unsolicited online ads, and potentially more seriously, using cookie fraud to falsify your identity on the Internet, or use your legitimate identity to carry out malicious activities. Cookies can be viewed and managed in your web browser’s settings. In Google Chrome you navigate to Settings, Privacy and security, and then select Cookies and other site data. Many websites require cookies to be enabled on your browser in order to provide their online services, but there may be occasions when you wish to disable cookies or at least be able to control whether they are created when you visit a website. You can allow all cookies, block third-party cookies, or block all cookies. Additionally, you may want to delete cookies when you no longer need them. You can also view the cookies currently saved by your browser. In the list of cookies, you can use the icons to either view the details about a cookie or delete it. Cache is the temporary area used by your web browser to store web data that can be quickly reused when requested instead of needing to go back to the original source content. So, in this situation, if the web content hasn’t changed since it was last retrieved, it can be served from the local disk rather than from the Internet, and in this way the cache can vastly improve the web browser’s speed and performance and can help reduce bandwidth usage. If you want to ensure you are retrieving the latest content from the Internet, or are concerned about storing some data locally, you can clear (or ‘purge’) the cache from the disk. To manage cache in Google Chrome, navigate to Settings, Privacy and security, then choose Clear browsing data. In the Clear browsing data dialog box, you need to select the time range, which can be from 1 hour up to all time, then select the Cached images and files checkbox and select Clear data. In this video, you learned that: A proxy server acts as a go-between when web browsing. Proxy servers help organizations reduce bandwidth usage, improve speed of web requests, and maintain security. You can configure either manual or automatic proxy server settings. Cookies are the small text-based files containing information about your computer when browsing. Cookie settings can be configured to allow all cookies, block third-party cookies, or block all cookies. Cache is a temporary storage area so data can be quickly reused when requested. And, you can clear the cache from the disk when it’s no longer required.
