Mozilla is partnering with data breach notification site Have I Been Pwned on a new feature for Firefox that's sure to gain approval from security-conscious web surfers.
The feature, still in a very early stage, is designed to inform Firefox users about data breaches. For example, a notification could be triggered when a user visits a site that is known to have recently been breached. Have I Been Pwned's list of public data breaches will be used as the source for hacked sites.
Other goals of the project include educating users about data breaches - for example, providing a "Learn more" link alongside the breach notification - and offering people a way to opt into a service that would notify them (via e-mail) when they may be affected by a breach.
Troy Hunt, the security researcher behind Have I Been Pwned, confirmed the development on Twitter, saying that they are doing some "awesome things" with Mozilla.
As I mentioned, the project is in a very early stage but you can test it out now if you'd like by grabbing the requisite code over on GitHub. It's currently offered as an add-on although it sounds as if the functionality will eventually be baked into a standard release of Mozilla. No word yet on when that'll happen although given the current iteration, I suspect it'll still be a while.