On a network every connected device is identified by an IP address. To identify oneself, every device uses a special IP address 127.0.0.1 – also known as the localhost loopback. The localhost loopback is very useful when you are running a local server of some kind that makes use of the localhost loopback. But it can also be used by malicious software to run local web servers and display phishing sites in your web browser. If you are not using your Windows PC for web development or as a public server, then you should keep the localhost loopback disabled.
The new Edge web browser allows you to disable the localhost loopback in it so that even if a malicious software makes its way into your PC, it won’t be able to run local phishing sites. On every such an attempt, it will show something like “we cannot reach this page”.
Here is how you can disable the localhost loopback in the Edge browser:
- Open the Microsoft Edge web browser.
- Type about:flags in the address bar and press Enter.
- Under the Developer Settings section, uncheck the checkbox labeled Allow localhost loopback.
- Close all the open Edge browser windows and then restart it once again. Now localhsot loopback is disabled in the Edge browser.
Even though Edge allows you to disable localhost loopback, it is disabled only for the Edge browser and keeps working in all the other installed web browsers. So it can be a little step towards securing your system against malicious software and attack sites, but you should not depend only on it.