Mozilla: Firefox will start alerting you to recently breached sites

From zdnet.com

Firefox-maker Mozilla is integrating its recently launched data-breach alert service into Firefox on the desktop.

In September, Mozilla launched Firefox Monitor, which allows users to type in an email address and find out if their details are involved in any of the breaches cataloged on Australian security expert Troy Hunt’s website, Have I Been Pwned (HIBP).

Users can also sign up to Firefox Monitor to receive an email alert the next time their credentials are included in a breach added to HIBP.

There were some questions about how useful Firefox Monitor is, given it doesn’t do much more than Hunt’s own website. Have I Been Pwned visitors can also sign up to be notified if they’re affected by future breaches.

But Firefox Monitor is about to get much wider exposure by way of new data-breach notifications that will appear within the Firefox desktop browser. The feature is rolling out over the next few weeks.

The notifications will appear when Firefox users visit a site that has been breached in the past. The notification prompts the user to ‘Check Firefox Monitor’ website to see whether or not they’ve been affected by that data breach.

According to Mozilla, the browser alert will appear “at most once per site and only for data breaches reported in the previous 12 months”.

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