Upcoming Mozilla Firefox update will automatically block cryptojackers

An upcoming Mozilla Firefox update will reportedly allow the browser to automatically block illicit crypto miners.

The news was first reported by Techdows, who revealed that one of the upcoming features for Firefox will boost the security of its users.

Mozilla recently released Firefox 65 with a redesigned content blocking section found in the settings tab. With this, users can choose between standard, custom, and strict blocking options.

However, a bug in the design specification has revealed Mozilla’s future plans. It would seem that Mozilla is planning ahead for Firefox 67 and will be implementing a feature that blocks cryptojackers.

Users can enable the feature to block crypto miners (and fingerprinters) in the custom tab. They can then view the blocked content in a sub panel of the control centre user interface (UI) for a web page.

Mozilla has been aiming to target cryptojackers for some time now.

Back in August 2018, Nick Nguyen, vice president of product at Mozilla, noted: “Sites have deployed crypto mining 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.”

The Firefox release calendar states Firefox 67 will be released on May 14th, 2019.

It is positive to see Mozilla taking steps to prevent cryptojacking, which has been a growing issue in the space for some time.

You can discover how the new trend rose by a shocking 44% in 2018 and how to protect yourself against illicit cryptojacking here on Coin Rivet.