When surfing the internet it is important to have a safe and up-to-date browser.Not so much because we always have to keep up with IT evolutions, often irrelevant, but because most of the software updates of any program that communicates with the outside, are related to its security.
Being the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera to name the best) the main gateway to the internet, you have to keep it safe as much as possible.
Beyond the updates of these programs, it becomes absolutely important and decisive to also update the plugins it uses, that is, external software components that integrate into the browser.
To understand what I'm talking about, just think about the Flash Player, the plugin that allows everyone to see animations and videos streaming on the web.
Even if it is often not noticed, these external components are many, some are important, others are used few times; the important is keep them updated and today is the right day to check them on the fly and know if everything is safe or if you have to install the new version of the components used.
Mozilla developers have created a web page called Mozilla Plugin Check which previously served to check if the numerous Firefox extensions and plugins were up to date and which, for a few days, has also worked as a controller for other web browsers (IE, Chrome, Opera, Safari).
This page is completely automatic and immediately checks and informs users if the version of each plugin of your web browser is the latest available and is therefore safe.
The control analyzes the plugins installed on the computer for the web browser used and compares them with the most recent version offered by those who develop and distribute it.
The most popular plugins used by browsers which, generally, are installed on all computers, are:
- Adobe Flash Player: for viewing videos and animations
- Shockwave Flash is sometimes used for online games
- Silverlight Plug-In is similar to Flash but is from Microsoft
- Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library serve ad aprire un player WMP sul browser
- VLC is used to open the VLC player on a website
- Real Player allows you to see videos streamed.
- Java is used by many web applications
- DivX Web Player allows you to watch streaming movies in high quality
- Adobe Acrobat to open pdfs on the browser
- QuickTime Plug-in is the Apple player used by many sites
- Microsoft Office to open Word, Excel, Powerpoint documents on the browser
- Google Earth Plugin per vedere la Terra 3D
- Unity Player used by some browser games
Il Mozilla Plugin Check check if one of these components is up to date and okay (green color), if it is vulnerable from a security point of view and needs to be replaced (red color), if there is a new update but it is not important (orange color)
The control does not support all plugins, for some it manages to give the direct link to the site where you can download the new version while for others there is a gray button activates the Google search.
In the latter case, the check must be done manually, comparing the detected version with the one you see on the official website of the developer of the plugin.
The same thing can be done on the site Browser Check and check if the plugins are up to date and safe and highlights those that have dangerous vulnerabilities and require the update.
Since this operation is a one-minute thing, both for Windows and Mac and Linux PCs, and it is important for surfing the web safely, I advise everyone to do it immediately and, in case, update plugins.
