Safe web browsing
- Michael Laurentius
Purpose
The traffic between your browser and a web server, including sensitive data, is readable if you fail to establish a secure connection first.
Website ads and content, including legitimate ones, can be compromised (or injected) with malicious code that puts your system at risk of infection.
Audience
faculty researchers Admin staff IT staff students
On this page
Initial considerations
Some webpage functionality can be impacted through the use of an ad-blocker. If you encounter issues on a page you need to access and trust, try pausing the ad-blocker or granting an exception for the page, rather than disabling the blocker.
Ensure your system is protected from viruses and malware.
While ad-blocking software can help proactively stop malicious content from being loaded, it is important that your system is further protected, should anything be missed or if you need to pause your ad-blocker.
What can I do?
Set up HTTPS-only mode in your browser.
Chrome
Enable “Always use secure connections.”
Firefox
Enable “HTTPS-Only Mode.”
Safari
Enabled by default. No action required.
Other browsers
Contact your Local IT group for additional assistance.
Install ad-blocking software (extension) for your browser.
Safari
Possible solution(s) include:
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera
Possible solution(s) include:
Other browsers
Contact your Local IT group for additional assistance.
Prevent tracking cookies (also known as third-party persistent or cross-site cookies)
When provided with a “cookie consent notification”, it is recommend that you accept only to essential cookies and decline optional cookies (sometimes referred to as statistic or marketing cookies).
Safari
Enable “prevent cross-site tracking”
Chrome
Manage “Tracking protections” to send “Do not track” signal and block third-party cookies.
Edge
Enable “Tracking prevention” and ensure “Balanced” or “Strict” profile is selected.
Enable “Send ‘Do Not Track’ requests”.
Firefox
Ensure “Enhanced Tracking Protection” is blocking cross-site tracking cookies.
Other browsers
Contact your Local IT group for additional assistance.
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Additional help
General
Contact us | Information Security (IS)
Contact us | Information Technology (IT)
Researchers
Research Information Security - Information Security at University of Toronto
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