Mozilla warns about http in Firefox 51
Mozilla has released version 51 of its Firefox browser. This gives a warning if a website with a login form does not have a secure connection. Competitor Google also comes with a similar function in the upcoming Chrome version 56.
Mozilla has put the updates in Firefox version 51 in the release notes. The browser builder reports that a warning is shown in the url bar if a website with a login page does not offer https. That warning is displayed in the form of a lock with a line through it. Mozilla hereby advises against logging into such websites.
Firefox 51 also contains a number of new features. For example, it is possible to play flac files and support for WebGL 2 has been added. It should also be possible to store passwords on more websites. Mozilla further states that browser performance has been improved and several software bugs have been fixed.
With the warnings for http, Mozilla is following in the footsteps of Google, who previously did something similar in Chrome. The internet giant introduced the warning mechanism with Chrome version 56. Many websites have started introducing https on their websites in recent years, although this has not yet been implemented everywhere. For example, Minister Plasterk recently came under fire for not wanting to provide all government websites with https. He later came back to that.