The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched the new and improved HTTPS Everywhere 2.0 for the Firefox browser . HTTPS Everywhere helps keeps you safe on the Web by encrypting connections to more than 1,400 Web sites. The program uses carefully crafted rules to automatically switch sites from HTTP to HTTPS whenever possible, This new version also includes an important new update that warns users about web security holes and there’s also finally a version for Google’s Chrome Web browser.

The new feature, the “Decentralized SSL Observatory” is optional. It’s designed to detect encryption weaknesses and notifies users when they are visiting a website with a security vulnerability. This is meant to let you know that the “secure” site you’re visiting may be leaving you open to eavesdropping or “man in the middle” attacks.

In addition, thanks to the EFF’s partnership with the Tor Project, an Internet anonymity program and network, HTTPS can help steer you clear of sites with fake or forged Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates.

New ‘HTTPS Everywhere’ Web browser extension released. More >