The basic difference between an insecure (HTTP) and secure (HTTPS) connection is that your data is transferred in an encrypted format in the latter case. This is why you should always enter your financial information and other sensitive data only if a website is using the HTTPS protocol. The data sent and received over an insecure HTTP connection can easily be intercepted, stolen and manipulated using a man-in-the-middle attack. The problem is that some websites offer both secure and insecure connections – you may forget which type of connection that site is using at a moment and end up sending your sensitive information over unencrypted insecure connection.
The Secure It extension for Firefox addresses this issue and allows you to lock HTTPS connection for any domain, thereby effectively forcing only secure connections to that domain. Once you have locked a domain using Secure It, you will always be connected to that domain over HTTPS protocol in Firefox.
After you have installed Secure It extension in Firefox, it will place a black lock icon (in the unlocked position) in the Firefox toolbar. If the icon does not automatically appear in the toolbar, then you can choose to customize the toolbar and then drag-n-drop the “Not locked” text or icon to the toolbar.
By default the icon stays in the unlocked position for all the domain names. But if you want to force any domain to be accessed only through the HTTPS protocol, then you can visit that website in Firefox and when the site is loaded, click on the Secure It lock icon. The icon will turn into locked position and its color would change to green.
Now Secure It will force Firefox to access that domain through the HTTPS protocol whenever possible. You should note that some of the websites do not support HTTPS or support it only partially. In these cases, even though Secure It icon will turn green, you still will not be able to access the sites securely.
Conclusion: Secure It allows you to force secure HTTPS connections for any domain in Firefox. Unlike the more popular HTTPS Everywhere extension, it has a simple, unobtrusive interface and allows you force secure connection for selective domains.
You can download and install Secure It for Firefox from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/secure-it/.