Web Browser Privacy and Security Issues | What is Web Browser

What is a Web Browser?

Web Browser (or Internet Browser) is an application that supports the client-side of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the Internet protocol for the World Wide Web (WWW). You can use a Web browser, also called a “browser,” to access (browse) content published on a Web server. Each individual web page, image, and video is identified by a distinct Uniform Resource Locator (URL), enabling browsers to retrieve these resources from a web server and display them on a user’s device.

What does a web browser do?

 

These features include the following:

1. Toolbar buttons for navigating forward and backward through the tree of previously displayed pages, for stopping the download process, and for manually refreshing a page that loaded incompletely.

2. Lists of favorites or bookmarks that store Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) of frequently accessed sites as well as tools for organizing and accessing those URLs.

3. Options for specifying a default home page from which to begin browsing, a default search engine for searching the Web, and other default browsing options.

4. Security options for handling such concerns as whether to allow scripts, ActiveX components, or Java applets to run on the browser.

5. Facilities for displaying the underlying source code or HTML of a page, and even for editing and publishing Web content.

6. Integration with other Internet software such as mail, news, or chat applications. Some Web browsers are packaged as stand-alone applications, while others are part of an overall suite of Internet tools that are integrated at various levels.

Web Browser Privacy and Security Issues

During the course of browsing, cookies received from various websites are stored by the browser. Some of them contain login credentials or site preferences.

Web Browser Privacy and Security Issues

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Web Browser Privacy Issues

However, others are used for tracking user behavior over long periods of time, so browsers typically provide settings for removing cookies when exiting the browser. Finer-grained management of cookies requires a browser extension.

Security

Web browsers are popular targets for hackers, who exploit security holes to steal information, destroy files, and other malicious activity. Browser vendors regularly patch these security holes, so users are strongly encouraged to keep their browser software updated. Other protection measures are antivirus software and avoiding known-malicious websites.

 

Security exploits of browsers often use JavaScript sometimes with cross-site scripting (XSS) sometimes with a secondary payload using Adobe Flash. Security exploits can also take advantage of vulnerabilities (security holes) that are commonly exploited in all browsers.