One of the features that Mozilla is currently working on in order to boost the security of its users is default blocking of cryptocurrency miners.
The latest
Firefox version comes with enhanced tracking protection which provides more content blocking options, and as
discovered recently, the update to browser version 67 could push things even further.
Mozilla is currently exploring additional blocking options for Firefox, and it looks like crypto miners and fingerprinters are the next in the company’s crosshair.
Work on these new tools has already started, but public testing isn’t yet ready, as Mozilla wants to make sure everything works correctly even before bringing the options to the Nightly builds of Firefox. However, given Firefox 67 is projected to launch on May 14, it shouldn’t take too long before Mozilla rolls out these features to public testers as well.
Offensive against crypto mining started in 2018
Mozilla announced its intention to block cryptocurrency mining scripts in Firefox back in mid-2018, and the feature was projected to go live in Firefox 63.
“Some trackers fingerprint users — a technique that allows them to invisibly identify users by their device properties, and which users are unable to control. Other sites have deployed cryptomining scripts that silently mine cryptocurrencies on the user’s device. Practices like these make the web a more hostile place to be. Future versions of Firefox will block these practices by default,” Nick Nguyen, Mozilla's vice president of product, said in an August 30 post.
Other browsers already come with such protections enabled by default, including Opera, which was the first browser to block crypto miners for users.
Google itself, which is the maker for the world’s number one browser on the desktop, implemented restrictions for crypto miners, deleting all extensions powering such activities in Chrome.
